Diver nearly becomes lunch for a Bryde whale feeding on sardines

A diver was filming the annual sardine run in South Africa when he was nearly swallowed by a 40-tonne Bryde whale.

The sardine run occurs when billions of the tiny fish travel in large groups together known as ‘bait balls’. Each year, they migrate up Africa’s eastern coast making it the best time for whales to feast on loads of these smaller fish.

47-year-old Rainer Schimpf was filming a Bryde whale feed on sardines near Port Elizabeth of the South African coast, when he realized the whale got a little too close for comfort.

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The whale, whose mouth was wide open in attempting to catch as many sardines as he could, almost caught the diver in his mouth as well.

Lucky for Schimpf, the giant mammal swerved away from him at the last second, saving Schimpf from a trip into the whale’s stomach, Moby Dick style.

“At the last moment he must have realized I was there and he diverted away from me and actually missed most of the bait ball,” Schimpf said, according to The Daily Mail.

Captured on camera, you can see how close a call this really was. When the whale emerges from below, Schimpf catches video of his enormous mouth agape, coming directly at him.

“I saw him coming up and I thought ‘that’s it for me.’ The diameter of his mouth was big enough to swallow a car – he would have barely felt me going in,” said Schimpf.

Because Bryde whales circle the water to create a current in order to catch large groups of these small fish at once, Schimpf is very lucky he was not sucked in.

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Among whales, the sardine run attracts sharks, dolphins, and diving birds.

Schimpf's luck didn't end there, because at the last second he got a little poke from a hungry shark circling the tiny fish hoping to get a bite.

Maybe he took that as his cue that it was finally time to get out of the water, as one brush with death was quite enough.

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