Imagine for a moment you are battleship engaged in some mortal cat and mouse game with an enemy submarine.

Suddenly out of the deep blue gloom a long grey torpedo shaped object comes into view heading directly for midships.

With no time for evasive maneuvers, counter measures are your only hope now.

Closer and closer it gets until you realise it is not a torpedo after all. It is the submarine about to ram you!!

Ok, so I have played up the drama just a little but actually having 25 tonnes of grey ballistic whale swimming directly at you comes with its own unique combination of fear, panic, distress, acceptance and joy.

In the future if I ever find myself targeted by a large grey underwater ballistic object I sincerely hope it is a humpback whale.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Ballistic Joy ‘ 1/125s f/6.3 ISO160 15mm