Australian Surfer Gets Lucky and Shares Seriously Sublime Moment With Whales (Watch)

Jade Eckardt
·2 min read
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When it comes to sea life surfers encounter, sharks have been getting stealing the spotlight lately. We've sure seen a lot of 'em lately.

Surfing sea otters, seals, and the occasional pod of dolphins get a little attention too. But whales? We don't see a lot of 'em.

So the footage below is a real treat. A couple of weeks ago, Australian wildlife photographer Jaimen Hudson captured a truly sublime moment in nature between a surfer, a mama whale, and her calf.

Hudson posted the clip above yesterday and captioned it:

"Surfing with Southern Right whales. @damopansini enjoying some winter waves with the locals. Esperance, Western Australia."

He also added text on the screen that reads:

"POV, you are surfing and a whale and calf come to say hello."

In the footage, the surfer is on a bright yellow shortboard. The mother whale and calf swim up to him, geting pretty darn close. Judging by board length, the whales are only around 10 to 20 feet away at times.

The surfer is being totally respectful and minding his own business while the whales are just cruising in the clear water.

According to NOAA Fisheries:

"The Southern right whale is found throughout the Southern Hemisphere and listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

"Southern right whales have a stocky, black body often with white belly and chin patches and a large head covered in callosities.

"They range in length between 43 to 56 feet, and weigh up to 176,000 pounds."

And about the baby:

"Females usually give birth to their first calf between eight and ten years old and gestation takes approximately one year.

"Calves are 16 to 20 feet long at birth and wean at approximately one year of age, and females reproduce every three to five years."

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