Featured Image Credit: Caters News Agency
In Cape Town, South Africa, a foolish beach-goer was recently filmed swimming out to two whales to harass them. The swimmer was circled by the whales and it appears in the video the man irritated the whale’s head causing it to protrude out of the water.
Graeme Grant, a tour operator, captured the images after seeing a group of four whales in the bay.
“After watching for a while they split up and two whales moved into the bay and came very close to the shoreline,” says Grant.
“The whales were chasing each other around and then they started circling each other, close to the rocks and a public footpath,” he said. “We then saw a man in the water, and I couldn’t believe it when he actually touched one of the whales. One slap of a [flipper] would swat him like a fly.”
Whale watching tour operators are required to stay around 50 meters away from the whales. This was a very dangerous thing for the man to do considering these whales can weight up to 60 tons. The act is also illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to harass whales.
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