A Dunsborough man holidaying with his family in Exmouth has captured the moment a breaching whale almost crashed onto a dinghy full of tourists.
Mark Collins, 49, told WAtoday how on the 7th of July, he took his boat out on the reef with his wife, his 12-year-old son and some friends when they saw three whales swimming around a couple of tourist-filled boats.
He said all of a sudden one of the whales breached, shot up in the air and crashed back downjust metres beside one of the dinghies.
"We thought 'Geez, that was a bit close'," he said.
"You could hear the screams in the background."
Mr Collins said while seeing breaching whales at that time of the year up north was a common occurrence, he had never seen one so close to a boat.
"It was quite a spectacle, but it could have been a disaster," he said.