An image purportedly showing a large whale swimming near a big-wave surfer started circulating online in December 2015:
Although several real images have captured large marine animals beneath the waves near surfers, scuba divers, and kayakers, the above-displayed image is not one of them.
This picture is a piece of digital art created by Julian Herbrig. The original image of a surfer was taken by photographer Tim McKenna in Teahupoo, Tahiti, in 2006 and captured Manoa Drollet, a Billabong team rider who said that the pictured wave was one of the biggest he rode in 2006:
