Kicker: Rainer and the whale

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ve all read about Jonah and the whale, but here’s a story of a man who experienced it, in a way.

Rainer Schimpf was snorkeling off South Africa’s Port Elizabeth Harbor when he met face to face with a whale. A hungry one. With open jaws.

Let’s just say, everything happened fast.

SCHIMPF: Once you’re grabbed by something which is 15 tons heavy and very fast in the water, you realize you’re actually only that small in the middle of the ocean. 

He and two friends had only been in the water a few minutes. His attention had been on sharks in the water when, as he put it, all of a sudden things got dark.

SCHIMPF: Obviously he realized I was not what he wanted to eat, so he spat me out again. 

Schimpf and friends were filming a sardine run. Billions of the tiny fish spawn and create a feeding frenzy of penguins, seals, and other marine life.

Thankfully for Schimpf, the whale was a picky eater.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/ABC11) This picture taken on November 20, 2016, shows a mother Bryde’s whale and her calf feeding on anchovies in the Gulf of Thailand.

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