Recently, two kayakers off California inadvertently got between a lunge feeding humpback whale and its lunch. Videos of the encounter show the whale surfacing between the yellow kayak, almost appearing to swallow the kayakers and their boat. Fortunately, neither the two kayakers nor the whale appears to have been injured.

On Monday morning, Julie McSorley and her friend, Liz Cottriel, were kayaking off Avila Beach, Calif., in San Luis Obispo County. In the distance, humpback whales were feeding and breaching. The two kayakers, paddling a yellow double sit-on-top kayak, found themselves surrounded by a large school of small silver fish churning the water, making a sound that one of the kayakers likened to “crackling glass.” Above them, sea birds wheeled and dove, feeding on the silver fish.

Suddenly, a humpback whale surfaced beneath their kayak, lifting them about six feet above the water. The whale was lunge feeding and the kayak was apparently in the way.

The New York Times quotes Ms. McSorley saying, “I kind of went blank. It was a matter of a second or two.”

“All I saw was white and I pushed my hand out and I thought, ‘I am getting crushed,’ because I thought it was either going to land on me or I was going to drown,” Ms. Cottriel said. “I am literally looking inside the whale’s mouth.”

Fortunately, the kayak rolled off the whale, tossing the women into the water. “She popped up and I popped up right after her,” Ms. Cottriel said.

An off-duty firefighter who was paddle-boarding nearby helped them right the kayak. “He checked to see if we had our arms and legs and everything,” Ms. McSorley said.

Another kayaker found their paddles and returned them to the women, who were not injured except for some bruises to Ms. Cottriel’s arms and hip.

Other kayakers captured video of the encounter from at least two different perspectives. The videos are embedded below.

Humpback whale almost swallows kayakers near a California beach | ABC7

Kayakers nearly swallowed by humpback whale in California

Thanks to Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.