A couple out on a quiet boating trip off the coast of South Africa got the shock of their lives when they were suddenly joined on deck by a 40-ton southern right whale.
Yacht skipper Ralph Mothes, 59, is seen in this amazing photograph dwarfed by the whale as it breaches right next to his yacht Intrepid.
A split-second after the picture was taken the 30ft-long whale slammed into the deck, snapping the steel mast like a twig and crushing the coach roof and side rigging. Southern rights, an endangered species, can grow up to 50ft long and weigh 60 tons, so this one was probably a youngster.
A tourist from Botswana who was aboard a nearby sightseeing boat captured the before and after shot.
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