California

Huge creature shows off its ‘tremendous’ strength off California coast. See the photo

A wildlife photographer captured a stunning photo of a huge creature displaying its strength off the coast of California.
A wildlife photographer captured a stunning photo of a huge creature displaying its strength off the coast of California. Photo by Alex Madrzyk via Unsplash

A huge whale showed off its breaching skills to a group of whale watchers — and a lucky wildlife photographer — off the coast of California, the stunning photo shows.

It wasn’t just any old breach, though. The humpback whale hurled its entire body out of the water in a display of “tremendous” power, Princess Monterey Whale Watching said on Facebook.

“Incredible full body breach!” officials said in the post. “The tremendous amount of power needed to launch themselves out of the water is nothing less than spectacular to see!”

Wildlife photographer Steve Harms attributed the stunning shot to lucky timing.

“Luck plays a big part in good whale photographer,” he said in an Aug. 24 post on Instagram. “They move, the boat moves, you move, and it’s hard to know when or where they appear after their sounding dives.”

Harms said he’ll usually zoom “all the way out” to gain a wider field of view while he waits for sightings. But this time he had his camera on full zoom when the whale breached near the boat.

“The weather has been incredible in the bay and the humpbacks are putting on quite the show lately!” Princess Monterey Whale Watching said.

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Brooke Baitinger
McClatchy DC
Brooke Baitinger is a former journalist for McClatchyDC.
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