When a group of kayakers went whale watching off Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo, California, they probably didn’t expect to nearly become real-life Jonahs. But that’s what happened, and the whole thing was caught on camera.
Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel were likely a bit surprised when they ended up in the mouth of a humpback whale. The whale, of course, wasn’t attempting to eat them — whales generally don’t eat kayaks or humans — but was surfacing to devour a school of fish that were beneath the kayak.
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m gonna push,'” Cottriel told FOX26 News. “Like, I’m gonna push a whale out of the way! It was the weirdest thought. I’m thinking, ‘I’m dead. I’m dead.’ I thought it was gonna land on me. Next thing I know, I’m underwater.”
According to reports, several other people who were in the area came to their rescue and helped them get back in the kayak. “I was shaking my shirt and a bunch of fish came out of my shirt,” Cottriel continued. There were no injuries but McSorely did, apparently, lose her car keys.
