Most of us only ever see whales on TV, and those of us who have seen them in person usually only get to see them from the respectful distance of a whale watching boat. But this couple from Australia had an up close and personal encounter with two humpback whales… and luckily they had GoPros with them to capture the special moment on film.
Whale watching guides Emi-Rose Curtis and Brad Nicholls were testing film equipment on Australia’s Gold Coast Seaway when the whales approached.
“We were just playing around underwater with the GoPros and all of a sudden there was something much larger than a turtle there,” Curtis said. “In 10 years, I have never seen this type of behavior for whales with a boat, let alone with us in the water.”
Not only did the whales swim close to the couple, they continued to playfully slap the water and swim.
“Two large humpback whales swam around us for close to two hours; singing to us and gentle touching us with their pectoral fins and head,” Curtis wrote on YouTube.
Despite the massive size of their temporary playmates, the couple never felt threatened. “Their movements were so gentle and so slow, almost like they were like ‘Oh, I don’t want to hurt my new friends,’” Curtis said. “My heart was so full of love at that moment.”
Curtis almost didn’t post the footage because she didn’t want to encourage others to get too close to the whales, but luckily for us, she decided the video was too incredible not to share.
“It was like hanging out with Mother Nature,” she said. “My heart was so full of love at that moment.”
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