The photo on the right is an image that has "gone viral" on the internet, and is being sent to millions of people via e-mail.  The accompanying story claims that the kayaker is an Alaskan dentist who ended up between the jaws of a whale which was surfacing to feed on herring.

As with many things on the internet, one should greet such things with healthy skepticism.  As it turns out, this photo is a fake, composed by combining two different images; one of a surfacing whale, and the second of a kayaker.  The two photos were merged to place both elements in the same place at the same time.

This composite photo started out as a joke to give the subject dentist a chuckle about conducting an oral examination on the mouth of a whale.  But then the photo was spread to others, with the original joke forgotten, and is now being distributed as a real, legitimate one-in-a-billion photo.

The full story is explained at this web site: Hoax-Slayer

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