Whale stuns divers in Monterey Bay, coming within 5 feet and staring into camera
by Alix Martichoux 3 Feb 2018 23:56 PST
A screenshot from the video Ben Laboy took shows how close the gray whale got to the divers © Ben Laboy
Ben Laboy considers himself a very lucky diver.
It was only his 30th dive (not a huge number in the scuba diving community) when a gray whale came so close, Laboy felt he could reach out and touch it. Not only that, but he says he's not much of a photographer and it was his first time using the GoPro camera he used to capture the encounter.
"I'm glad the footage turned out so other people would believe us," Laboy, an energy engineer in San Francisco, said. "It's awesome being able to relive it over and over again and be able to convince myself that it happened."
It was about halfway through the dive when Laboy turned back to look at his dive buddy, Nicole Guido-Estrada.
"I just started staring behind Nicole because I thought I saw something. I wasn't sure if it was a rock, a school of fish, a shadow or just nothing."
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