Dory, the famous blue palette surgeonfish, tried to speak the language of a humpback whale in the classic Disney movie, Finding Nemo, and everyone thought it was quite comical and cute at the time. Remember? However, one man appeared to try a similar task when faced with the underwater confrontation between the peaceful, yet massive ocean dweller.

Chris Coates was in the middle of filming footage about the humpback whale near the eastern coast of Africa when the head-to-fin encounter occurred.

Thirty-eight-year-old photographer, Chris Coates, spoke with Mike Skogmo of JukinVideo.

“But I must admit, I got quite a shock when it swam right up at me. At one stage it was only one foot away, and even though I know that they generally don’t hurt people, it’s so big and strong, it is still scary,” Coates said.

Coates went on to explain the event in greater detail where he even noted the sensation of having a barnacle-ridden humpback charge against one’s flesh. ‘Ew’, or maybe this is more of an ‘Ah’ situation.

“The whale hit me on the head and hand. I could feel its barnacles scraping over my forehead. The slap with the fin was quite hard, but I don’t think it was trying to hurt me or it would have been way harder. It also must have hit the camera because it hit my hand that was holding the camera,” Coates said.

Did the whale give the photographer a right and then a left, or a left and then a right? I guess the moral of the story is; don’t pick a fist fight with a humpback whale or you’ll lose every time.

[Images And Video Via YouTube And Courtesy of Jukin Video]