Douglas took amazing photos of the giant marine mammal from the porthole of his boat. The scene stunned him for a few seconds, but he immediately pulled the camera from him and took it. Fortunately, the angle of fire on him allowed him to get a bigger, clearer view of the whale. Remarkably, the creature made the fishing boat seem incredibly small in comparison.

The photographer also enlisted the help of a whale watcher, Kate Cummings, who managed to capture a video of the leaping whale in action.

The whale watcher revealed to the media: “It was fun capturing this video. The whale had already jumped several times much farther from the fisherman. But sometimes, when whales jump multiple times, they also head in a specific direction when underwater, building momentum for the next breach. I thought the next gap would be around the fisherman because the whale was heading that way and of course! Although I didn’t expect the whale and the boat to line up so perfectly.”

Adult humpback whales weigh around 25 to 30 metric tons (28 to 33 short tons). Humpback whales often make a series of leaps, so when Croft saw this whale leaping, he made sure he was ready.

“This whale had jumped a couple of times before this one and will continue to do so many times,” said the 60-year-old photographer.