About 40 surfers and swimmers gathered in a cluster last week to watch a southern right whale and its calf swim in close proximity to them off Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia.
At one point, the mother whale seemed to go into protection mode and did a sweeping turn in front of the crowd. With its tail, the whale took a swipe at the surfers, hitting three surfboards and nudging one swimmer who appeared to attempt to swim atop of the whale.
Josh, one of the surfers, explained to The Guardian, “There was a bit of pointing going on and I looked round and the little one was just there. Then mum came in pretty quick smart, I think, when she realized how close people were.
“You often see [whales] farther out the back, but this one just came right up to where people were hanging on their boards.”
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At first, some thought one of the whales had been caught in a shark net but that wasn’t the case.
“I think everyone was just paddling up to get a good look,” Josh told The Guardian. “It’s a sort of thing you won’t forget seeing.”