“They had no idea.”
Recently, while wading in the warm waters off the coast of Hawaii, this family had a breathtaking encounter with one of the ocean’s most iconic inhabitants — and it took no effort on their part at all. The imposing animal actually approached them.
He came within mere inches, yet amazingly the family seems to have been completely unaware.
The scene didn’t go entirely unnoticed, though. A stranger, Indy Clinton, watched it all unfold from a balcony high above:
The family, clearly having fun, had failed to realize that their little party had been joined by a giant sea turtle. The curious reptile had apparently decided to move in for a closer look — doing so in such a way as to avoid detection from the people he was observing.
“They had no idea,” Clinton wrote. “The water is really cloudy when you’re in it, so they wouldn’t [have] been able to see it.”
The behemoth turtle — likely a green sea turtle, who are capable of growing to 300 pounds — soon continued on his way, leaving the family none the wiser. And it’s probably a good thing that he did.
Laws prohibit people from disturbing sea turtles in Hawaii, with recommendations being to not get within 10 feet of them. In this case, though, the decision appears to have been entirely up to him.
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