--- title: Whale Swims Up in Rare Close Encounter With Police Officers description: In a rare moment, a whale swam up to make friends with two police officers and the charming video captures it all. canonical: https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-09T12:07:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:14.777Z og:title: Close Encounter With Whale Leaves 2 Police Officers Amazed og:description: Whale of a tale here og:url: https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt484f6b34f451d635/698937594ee2627549312888/whale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4757 og:image:height: 2676 og:image:alt: MEXICO-TOURISM-WHALE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Close Encounter With Whale Leaves 2 Police Officers Amazed twitter:description: Whale of a tale here twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt484f6b34f451d635/698937594ee2627549312888/whale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Close Encounter With Whale Leaves 2 Police Officers Beyond Impressed > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b1a709fa-9c97-4c24-ac39-29046ee9d432&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 9, 2018 12:07 PM UTC  People watch as a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) jumps out of the Pacific Ocean's waters in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico on March 14, 2018\. Despite a surge of violent crimes in popular tourist areas such as Los Cabos and Cancun, tourism is Mexico's third largest source of foreign exchange. In 2017 the country hit a new record -- 39.3 million tourists who generated $21 billion in business. / AFP PHOTO / FERNANDO CASTILLO (Photo credit should read FERNANDO CASTILLO/AFP/Getty Images) People watch as a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) jumps out of the Pacific Ocean's waters in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico on March 14, 2018\. Despite a surge of violent crimes in popular tourist areas such as Los Cabos and Cancun, tourism is Mexico's third largest source of foreign exchange. In 2017 the country hit a new record -- 39.3 million tourists who generated $21 billion in business. / AFP PHOTO / FERNANDO CASTILLO (Photo credit should read FERNANDO CASTILLO/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 9, 2018 12:07 PM UTC Police officers were in for the highlight of their lives when a [whale](http://time.com/5353441/killer-whale-mother-carries-calfs-body/) swam up to their boat to make friends. A video captured a [whale](http://time.com/5282213/whales-drones/) swimming up to their patrol boat off of Queensland, Australia’s coast on Sunday. The whale popped in and out of the water to say hello, and put on a splashy show for the uniformed officers, flapping its fin on the water’s surface, and spraying out of its blow hole. “Wowee. That’s pretty special Jemma,” Sergeant Mick Jones says in the video. “That’s probably the greatest thing I’ve ever seen,” Constable Jemma Crowley adds. Special and great indeed. Police shared the video of the unique moment to their Twitter account with multiple whale puns. > [](https://twitter.com/QldPolice/status/1027058082415693824) Peak whale migration season sweeps through Australia between June and November, when the creatures start making their way south to Antarctica. It’s a great time to spot whales, but it’s rare that a whale gets this close to people on a boat. It’s still unclear what kind of whale it its, other than friendly. > [](https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1027510233726418944) To that end, you better believe the officers snapped a [selfie](https://au.news.yahoo.com/police-officers-massive-surprise-humpback-whale-breaches-next-patrol-boat-231126505.html) with their new best friend, giving two thumbs up in approval. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/"},"headline":"Close Encounter With Whale Leaves 2 Police Officers Beyond Impressed","datePublished":"2018-08-09T12:07:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:14.777Z","description":"In a rare moment, a whale swam up to make friends with two police officers and the charming video captures it all.","url":"https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt484f6b34f451d635/698937594ee2627549312888/whale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt484f6b34f451d635/698937594ee2627549312888/whale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MEXICO-TOURISM-WHALE","caption":"Whale comes out of water","creditText":"AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5362529/whale-video/","name":"Close Encounter With Whale Leaves 2 Police Officers Beyond Impressed"}}]}] ```