Anyone who has been on a whale-watching tour knows it can be a roll of the dice. Sometimes you see whales. Sometimes you don’t.
However, an extremely rare encounter was captured on video Tuesday when a tour out of Monterey Bay got up close and personal with not one, not two, but three humpback whales.
Evan Brodsky captured drone video of the encounter for Monterey Bay Whale Watch.
“An amazing day spent with 3 incredibly friendly humpback whales on our AM and PM trips!,” the tour company posted to Instagram. “Sometimes whales express curiosity towards our boat and boy do we feel lucky when they choose to do so.”
The company says the whales approached the boat on their own as the vessel was in neutral and at a complete stop. One of the whales came to within inches of one tourist but didn’t appear to make contact with the boat.
“This was a very rare encounter and definitely not something we see every day,” the company said. “Never try and approach Whales on your boat and never try and “force” an encounter like this on these animals.”
Humpback whales can reach up to 52 feet in length and weigh 40 tons.