What started out as a relaxing day on the sea in Hawaii, turned into an amazing encounter with a baby humpback whale for a pair of American tourists!
The couple, who are from Arizona, took a canoe out to sea just off the island of Maui to witness the beauty of the oceanic life firsthand. However, after waiting around hoping to see a whale, they took a break. That's when they got more than they asked for as a humpback whale hit their canoe. Luckily, the cameras were still rolling and Laurent Lebihan captured the extraordinary experience on film. The video shows his girlfriend peacefully looking at the ocean around them while Lebihan pans the surroundings with his camera. Then, all of a sudden, an adolescent whale accidentally collided with the canoe when it's flipper got caught in the vessel. The tourists were left in shock.
"This whale blindsided us. We had never seen him surface or anything," said Lebihan. "We were literally looking around try to find some whales to film. While we were taking a break, and looking at our surroundings, this happened." The shocked tourist added: "I'm surprised I held onto the camera and followed him.
"They are definitely amazing animals for the split second we saw that one up close."
The couple posted their homemade video on YouTube where it has received over 394,528 views since Sunday.
'We were out whale watching and totally caught off guard,' Leibihan wrote underneath the video. 'Good thing it was an adolescent whale and nothing bad happened.'
The humpback whale's species name is Megaptera novaeangliae.