In October, Hauser was diving in the waters off Muri Beach, Rarotonga, of the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, with a crew that intended to film her in the water with humpback whales. In an unusually persistent way, one of the whales swam up to her and began to press her with its mouth and chin, apparently trying to tuck it under its pectoral fin.

He simply wouldn’t quit touching me. I attempted to leave over and over, but he maintained doing it. Finally he pushed me out of the water with his fin. He maintained putting his eye right next to me and I couldn’t understand what he was attempting to tell me.

The interaction continued the same for regarding 10 minutes and, with adrenaline pumping, the worst thoughts began to attack the mind of the women biologist. Hauser’s team was worried for her, and abandoned their drone recording because, as Nan describes the minute, “they didn’t want to film my death.”

Hauser added:

” I thought the cam staff was going to wind up recording my death. One lash from a whale’s tail, and the pressure would break your bones. “

But it turned out that the whale was not the one Hauser needed to fear. She rapidly realized that there was a shark nearby, and the whale was doing its best to maintain her away from him. Another hunchback in the distance kept watch, and continuously slapped its tail against the water; noise can be heard underwater for miles.

“I lastly took my eye off the whale and saw something swimming extremely fast with its tail turning from side to side. Whales swim with their tails going up and down … It went to that minute that I recognized that it was a tiger shark, and it was one of the largest sharks I have ever before seen in my life.

By this time, the whale had returned Hauser to the watercraft after a few extreme minutes of grappling and spinning it. When the time came, Hauser quickly jumped into the boat and the whale even returned to keep an eye on it.

“I simply put my hands on my face and started crying. I can not say if they were tears of relief because I lived, or because I had just experienced the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life.

Humpback whales are recognized to care about others, and there are several recorded situations of them trying to rescue other pets from danger. Marine biologist Bert Pitman analyzed this behavior for more than 60 years and concluded that humpback whales frequently band together to disrupt killer whale attacks, despite the type of animal being struck.

So far, the Hauser experience is the only documented case including a human being. While Hauser did experience some bruising in the encounter, it really did not quit her from returning to the exact same waters a couple of days later, on her birthday. A female humpback followed her boat for miles, and kept leaping out of the water as if to obtain her attention.