John Hopkins

But everything in the whale's behavior seems to suggest he is protecting her, shielding her from the predator lurking nearby.

And so Nan yields to what is happening.

She lets herself be carried along by the colossal creature.

Nan feels the rush of warm air as the whale holds her aloft.

She catches sight of the boat.

It's straight ahead and getting closer.

Amid the adrenaline and exhilaration, Nan manages to take a moment to appreciate the remarkable thing she's experiencing.

If she wasn't holding her breath, she could laugh in amazement.

All her years spent studying whales, their intelligence, their sociability, it is all being borne out in the most incredible way imaginable.

Seconds later, they reach the boat.

The whale eases to a stop, curving his enormous body and raising his tail fluke, allowing Nan to climb off his back and onto the boat.

In the days that follow, Nan finds herself replaying her experience over and over.

She reappraises every detail, pondering the creature's actions, and how they might inform science's understanding of whale behavior.

Fortunately, everything was caught on her GoPro camera, so there is video evidence for her to review.

Despite Nan's initial certainty that the whale was deliberately protecting her from the shark, good scientific practice demands scrutiny and skepticism.

There have been some studies into altruism in humpback whales, but as far as Nan can tell, nothing as clear-cut as what she experienced.

As more time goes by, she becomes increasingly convinced that what happened to her was not a miracle, but a scientific clue, perhaps indicating something genuinely groundbreaking.

As the weeks turn into months, questions mount.

Did Nan experience a one-off, an arbitrary chance occurrence that has no real bearing on academic research?

Or did she glimpse an aspect of whale behavior that science hasn't yet fully understood?