Greg Rapp says he's been fishing off the Brevard County coast for more than 20 years, but he caught a rare sight this week that was a first for him.
"Big humpback whale off Kennedy Space Center," he said in video he posted online.
Rapp, a captain for SeaLeveler Sport Fishing Charters out of Port Canaveral, says the whale was just yards away from his 35-foot fishing boat.
"I've never seen a humpback whale, anything of that size," Rapp said. "He was coming up by the boat, slapping his fin. The power this thing has was unbelievable."
Rapp said his customers that day were clergy members, who said they would offer up a prayer for him that day while fishing.
Five minutes later -- they saw the humpback whale.
Rapp says he was only a few miles away from the coast.
Humpback whales may be a rare sight, but they are not unheard of in Atlantic waters.
Humpback whales in the Atlantic migrate between New England and the Caribbean with the seasons.
According to the National Marine Sanctuaries, the whales go to the cooler northern waters in the spring, summer and autumn to feed, particularly between Maine and Massachusetts.
They spend winters in the Caribbean, in particular off the Dominican Republican coast, to breed and give birth.