Words: /Getaway Magazine
What began as a calm free dive in the Pacific Ocean quickly turned into a heart-racing encounter when a Bryde’s whale surged through a school of sardines just metres away from a group of divers off the coast of Mexico.
The moment, filmed in November 2025 near Magdalena Bay in Baja California Sur, was captured on camera and later obtained by SWNS.
The footage shows 27-year-old free-diving instructor Emily Marzilli and her friends witnessing the whale’s sudden appearance while swimming among baitfish during sardine season.
The video, first shared on Marzilli’s Instagram account @emgonewild, opens with the group floating at the surface in full dive gear, laughing, screaming and gesturing excitedly at one another. Overlaid text reads, ‘Nothing in my life could’ve ever prepared me for this moment.’
The clip then cuts underwater, revealing a dense, shimmering ball of sardines. Moments later, the tightly packed school begins to scatter, darting frantically in all directions.
Seconds after the shift in behaviour, a massive Bryde’s whale bursts through the fish with its mouth wide open, feeding just a short distance from the stunned divers.
The whale glides past, its sheer size dwarfing the humans nearby, before disappearing back into the open ocean.
‘Then out of nowhere, the ocean gifted us this,’ reads another line of text on the video.
In the caption accompanying the post, Marzilli shared the emotional impact of the encounter.
‘I have tears streaming down my face as I write this,’ she wrote. ‘There are moments the ocean chooses you, and I know deep in my heart this was one of them. The 0.0001% chance we experience this, and maybe never again.’
She added that the moment would stay with her forever, describing it as a rare experience that reshaped how she understands life and the natural world.
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Speaking to SWNS, Marzilli explained that the group had planned the dive specifically for sardine season, when large predators are often drawn to the area and underwater activity can be intense.
‘We went knowing there could be National Geographic-level action,’ she said. ‘But we were not expecting this.’
Marzilli said the shock came from the sudden scale of the animal.
‘You’re expecting fish, and then all of a sudden there’s this 20- or 30-ton whale right in front of you,’ she said.
She stressed that the group was not attempting to approach whales and made every effort to give the animal space during the encounter. Shortly after surfacing, the whale swam away, leaving the divers shaken and speechless.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Bryde’s whales can grow between 40 and 55 feet long and weigh up to 90,000 pounds.
They belong to the baleen whale family and are considered one of the great whale species, alongside humpback and blue whales.
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Picture: Screenshot via @emgonewild Instagram video
Compiled by /Getaway Magazine
