A Norwegian tourist, Geir Johansen, was snorkeling off the Philippine coast near Oslob when he suddenly encountered the animal he had considered to be the scariest in his life – a whale shark, which is seen in a stunning Caters News’ video shared by The Daily Mail.
Despite earlier assertions by scuba diving coaches that these sharks don’t normally attack people, it gave Johansen the fright of his life, as he saw the giant fish swimming right beneath him and sucking in enormous volumes of water, raising fears he would himself be swallowed up as well.
Johansen, however, pulled himself together in the face of what he felt to be a danger, and managed to capture the magnificent sight on camera before being drawn dangerously close to the shark’s open mouth, as the fish was searching for algae and plankton to feed on. He eventually found himself pressed up against the shark’s jaw and then pushed away forcefully by its head, which “felt like steel,” the British newspaper quoted Johansen as saying.
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Johansen admitted that his tremendous fear of sharks, which had stopped him from surfing and other water activities throughout his life, hasn’t diminished following the incident, adding that as he ended up on the animal’s dinner plate, he did his best to put to practice the coaches’ instructions not to irritate sharks.
“It was almost looking at me as if to say 'stay away from my food,” said the tourist, while going on to bill his hair-raising experience as “amazing.”
