KEY BISCAYNE, FLA. (WSVN) - A family flipped out after they got quite the surprise off the South Florida coast, when they unexpectedly found themselves whale watching.
Sean Lilly and his daughter, Sienna Lilly, were on a boat ride with friends on Saturday when they came across a group of whales near Biscayne Bay.
Video captured the moment when father and daughter first spotted the marine mammals.
“That’s amazing!” said Sienna.
“You got to see a whale, in Miami,” said Sean.
Speaking with 7News on Thursday, Sean described the whale encounter.
“All of a sudden, I noticed a massive creature coming out of the water, and it was breaching. It appeared to be a whale,” he said. “It took a minute to figure it out, and it completely came out of the water. We were completely amazed. It was a ‘wow, wow’ moment,” said Sean Lilly.
“I reacted like crazy, like, I mean, I’ve never seen this before,” said Sienna. “It’s my first time, so it was a miracle [what] happened.”
The family saw the whales breaching just miles off of Key Biscayne. While it is a rare sight, it is not impossible to encounter whales in South Florida.
Recently, boaters traveling to South Florida from the Bahamas made a similar find.
The rare sighting made for an amazing experience for Sean and Sienna.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials advise anyone who spots a whale to stay at least 100 yards away so that they are not disturbed.
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