It probably won't come as a surprise to hear that Maui is a popular vacation destination this time of year. With the recent bout of cold that's been gripping the nation, the idea of a warm, tropical island sounds pretty nice to anyone shoveling snow.

It isn't just the warmth that makes Maui such a popular winter hotspot, however; it's also the whales.

Every winter thousands of North Pacific humpback whales make the long swim south from their feeding grounds in waters off of Alaska to the protected waters of Maui County. The whales, which migrate to Maui, form the densest population of humpbacks found anywhere in the world, and during the peak of the Maui whale watching season it isn't possible to look out at the water for more than two minutes without seeing a splash or a spout. Whale watching charters operate from dawn to dusk shuttling snap-happy visitors out to get a closer look, and for many, the experience is a pinnacle of their vacation.

In the case of these two Maui scuba divers, however, instead of going out to watch the whales themselves, the whales decided to stop in and pay them a visit as they hung out on the ocean floor at a depth of 180 feet. Just to add some spice to the already heart stopping moment, a few sharks decide to visit the divers just for good measure.

If this sounds just a little bit insane, these are the same people who are behind the "Black Coral" documentary we reported on back in May, and encounters such as this are almost to be expected from this bunch.

So although tens of thousands of Maui visitors will embark on whale watching charters this winter, we can guarantee that none of them are going to get a sighting quite like this.

Filed under: Scuba Diving, North America, United States