A claustrophobia - hasten picture has surface of a South African frogman who narrowly missed becoming a scrumptious collation – or at least a expire luck – for aBryde ’s hulk .

The footage   first made the rounds in2014when marine wildlife photographer and environmentalist Rainer Schimpf was diving off the South African Coast when one of the 15 - meter - farsighted ( 49 - foot ) giant broke the surface of the weewee in a feeding try . luckily for Schimpf , who was film just a few understructure away , the giant are baleen affluent belonging to the same group as low-spirited heavyweight and humpback giant . It ’s likely the whale was coincidentally lunge from below in lookup of small crustaceans , cephalopods , and fish that they are bed to eat .

Barcroft TV , who publish the video on YouTube , claims that the 51 - class - sometime ’s “ very rare ” nigh - miss occurred in the month of February when Rainer and his squad were   documenting a sardine run – “ a innate event where gannets , penguins , seals , dolphins , hulk , and sharks work together to conglomerate the fish into bait balls . ” Rainer , who describes himself as the CEO of a tour operations company on hisFacebook pageboy , was film the case for “ educational and environmental purposes . ”

IFLScience reached out to the diver for further clarification but has not get a response at the time of issue .

Regardless , Barcroft TV say Rainer had his team had just split into two groups roughly 25 nautical miles from shore when the sea “ suddenly moil up ” .

“ bulk large up out of darkness below come a Bryde ’s whale shooting up into the ball of Pisces , gulping all in its route , ” he toldAFP , adding that his legs were hanging from the giant ’s oral cavity .

" Unlike Jonah , who spent three days in the venter of a hulk according to thebiblical story , it was a “ matter of seconds ” before the “ heavyweight realise its mistake and opened its mouth , unblock me . I was washed out with what feel like metric ton of water from its mouth . ”

fortuitously , Schimpf says he did n’t suffer from broken bones or any cracked ribs .