This Humpback Whale Almost Crushed Kayakers

Two kayakers in a tandem kayak were nearly killed when a breaching humpback whale landed on top of them.

Video footage of the Saturday incident was captured by a passenger on a nearby Sanctuary Cruises whale tour just outside Monterey Bay’s Moss Landing Harbor.

Capt. Michael Sack of Sanctuary Cruises witnessed the event.

“A large aggregation of humpbacks (were) feeding,” Sack told local news station KSBW. “There were also a lot of kayakers right in the middle of it all. The next thing we knew, this thing launched right on top of these two kayakers. It was very scary to watch.”

The two were not directly hit by the massive animal, but were knocked out of their kayak and underwater. They were able to make it safely back to shore with the help of fellow kayakers.

“Kayaking with whales can be extremely dangerous,” Sack said. “This was one of the more dangerous situations that I’ve seen out here. I’m not sure if at this point these two know how lucky they were.”

It was entertaining to watch the whales swimming around the kayakers right up until the incident occurred, according to the video’s description.

“It’s all fun and games until someone gets jumped on,” Sack wrote. “That was heavy.”

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com.