A canoer thought he was getting a quiet day on the water Saturday. Instead, he was treated to an unforgettable up-close encounter with one of the ocean's greats off the coast of Encinitas.

Craig Callender , an environmental ethics professor at UC San Diego, was on his outrigger about 2.5 miles from the shoreline when a swarm of hundreds of birds overtook him. It was a sight, but what really caught his attention was a blow amid the chaos. Then, Callender spotted a Bryde's whale breaching under the flock.

"It was popping up all over the place, and very fast," he told NBC 7. "Then all of a sudden it was near me — then headed right at me! I put my GoPro in the water and aimed under the board. The big beast was no more than 10-15ft away."

The Bryde's whale , part of the Baleen family, av

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