A diver almost collided with an enormous baby whale which was swimming playfully nearby.
Yanna Xian, 24, was on a whale-spotting boat tour in Moorea, Tahiti, when she and her partner, Mitch Brown, were approached by the inquisitive humpback.
Incredible underwater footage showed the calf swimming very close to her before diving deeper into clear blue water.
Brown, from Honolulu, Hawaii, said: “Whales had been almost that close to us before, but they always had a clear sense of direction which was almost always away from us.
“This one may have not seen Yanna which is why it reared its head before touching her, as it was swimming away was the time I realized we had just created a life memory.
“It felt like a true connection between human and whale.” Keen diver Yanna had been letting sea water out of her goggles before she put her face back under, when she realised the gentle marine mammal was closeby.
Because of its size, she had to paddle frantically to stop from being pulled under herself as the whale swam away.
Mitch added: "We love traveling and freediving in our free time, we knew Tahiti was a bucket list destination to swim with whales.
"We were just swimming on the top of the water because we saw a mama whale and the baby whale resting at the bottom of the ocean.
"As we calmly watch them from above the water, this curious baby whale decides to come up to check us out. It was a beautiful display of respect from both of them.
"The whale clearly didn’t want to run into Yanna and Yanna tried to swim back with her hands instead of feet to avoid kicking the whale.
"I was more worried the whale would in unintentionally hit Yanna, and it happened so quickly that by the time I could react the whale was changing course.
"After that we all swam to each other and showed each other videos and photos and were laughing and high-fiving.
"We were all so stoked we got to witness that.
"There was definitely a moment of connection between the two of them."
Last year fishermen were amazed when a humpback whale, believed to be around 50ft in length, was spotted heaving itself out of the sea off the coast of Cornwall.
Local Andrew Robinson captured a video of the massive beast, which was believed to be breaching the water in an attempt to attract a female.
Humpbacks, which can weight up to 40 tons, are found in every ocean in the world and are known for their songs which can travel for several miles underwater.
Their numbers seriously dwindled to possibly as few as 10,000 until a hunting ban was introduced in 1985 and there are now believed to be as many as 85,000 swimming around the world.
They mainly feed on fish and small crustaceans.
