Near Guerrero Negro earlier this month, a boat full of visiting tourists received an unexpected lift from a gray whale off the Pacific coast of Baja California. Lory Barry was on a whale-watching expedition near the coast of Guerrero Negro, Mexico, a gray whale suddenly appeared near her boat, and the encounter was caught on video.

The remarkable footage, shot in the lagoon Ojo de Liebre near Guerrero Negro on the Pacific coast, shows the whale coming up to the surface underneath the boat and then appears to swim along close enough to the waterline to lift the boat out of the water, much to the amazement of passengers.In the video, shot by Lory Barra on March 8.

One of the passengers can be heard exclaiming: ‘She’s taking us for a ride!’ 

The grey whale then swims along, carrying the boat with her, giving those on the boat a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Lory, who is from Manhattan Beach in California, said the whale played with people on the boat for more than two hours in what was an ‘extremely rare occurrence’. 

‘She was having so much fun coming to us all for pets and kisses,’ she said. 

Lory said: ‘She waved at me with her pectoral fin as she let our boat go, almost touching my hand. 

‘She was double the size of our boat and weighed an estimate of 30 tons.’  

Some grey whales can weigh up to 40 tons and larger members of the species can reach lengths of up to 50 feet. 

The incredibly intelligent mammals have form for playing about with tourists in Mexico, with one curious whale ‘kissing’ a boatload of tourists last month. 

On that occasion the grey whale lifted its head out the water and allowed people on the boat to touch and kiss it, before hilariously spraying them with water from its blowhole.