Tourists on board a whale-watching boat in California got a very close-up view of a humpback on Friday (June 19th) when the marine mammal leapt from the ocean just a few feet from their vessel.

Tourist screamed with delight as the 50ft (15m) whale rose from the waters between Newport Beach and Catalina Island and came crashing down with an enormous splash just 15 ft (4.5 metres) from the side of the boat.

"The highlight of the trip was when this whale decided to breach four times in a row in a circle around our boat," said the filmer from Newport Coastal Adventure.

The Newport Coastal Adventure, 15 passenger boat headed out at 8:30am on their first trip of the day, and spotted a fully grown 50ft, 70,000lb Humpback Whale.
By the time the boat caught up to where the whale was spotted, about 7 miles off the coast of Newport Beach toward Catalina Island, passengers were amazed to watch this whale do a variety of behaviors such as chin slapping, pec slapping, over 40 full breaches and the highlight of the trip was when this whale decided to breach 4 times in a row in a circle around our boat, just 15ft from the vessel!