Epic whale 'poopnado' soils underwater expedition

Saturday, January 24, 2015, 5:39 PM - When you make a career out of delving into the depths to photograph wildlife, you're bound to swim into a few unpleasant situations.

But 'unpleasant' might be a bit of an understatement when describing what happened to Canadian photographer Keri Wilk.

In March 2014, Wilk and a few diving companions encountered a massive sperm whale in the waters off the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Just as Wilk closed in to capture the perfect shot -- the giant mammal shot back.

The whale turned it's body vertical, pointing its head towards the ocean floor.

Moments later, brown clouds of feces surrounded the divers as the undersea giant chose that exact moment to defecate in their midst.

The bowel expulsion lasted several minutes, and Wilk did not hesitate to capture the event with his camera.

As his website goes to show, Wilk is not shy when it comes to getting up close and personal with aquatic life. But no amount of diving or photography experience could have prepared Wilk for this dirty dive.

While the situation borders on terrible, the experience has left Wilk with a collection of rare images.

"While being soaked head-to-toe in a gigantic sperm whale "poopnado" sounds extremely disgusting, it was actually one of the most interesting underwater events that I've encountered in my 20-year underwater photo career," said Wilk.

"Given that these may be the first documented images of this type of behaviour, I feel extremely privileged to have been pooped on by this whale."

The whale's actions are an example of a common defense mechanism. Though in this case, it didn't quite work.

While on his expedition to Dominica, Wilk also used a drone to capture aerial footage of sperm whales -- at a much safer distance.

CHECK OUT MORE AMAZING FOOTAGE FROM WILK BELOW: