A group of whale watchers in Dana Point, California, captured a rare sight on Monday: a migrating gray whale giving birth.
The mother whale successfully welcomed her calf to the world in front of a boatload of whale watchers on tour with Capt. Dave’s Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari.
“As far as I know, no one has filmed a gray whale giving birth or even seen it before,” Dave Anderson, owner of Capt. Daves Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari, said in a statement.
“We were right there when it happened. We have footage of the whale bringing her calf over to our boat.”
Gray whales experience one of the longest mammal migrations (a 10,000 to 12,000 miles round trip along the west coast of the U.S.). It is not rare for gray whales to give birth during this journey, but the voyage’s length makes it a difficult sight to capture on camera.
Anderson and his crew had never witnessed a wild whale birth in their 25 years of whale watching until the gray while decided to treat them to a once in a lifetime experience on Monday.
According to Anderson, after the gray whale gave birth, the new calf began learning to swim. During the calf’s swim lessons with mom, the adult gray whale brought her baby close to the whale-watching boat, seemingly to show off her new baby.
“The mom was gently lifting the calf to take breaths, while the calf seemed to be resting on her back. In other moments we could see the calf’s floppy fluke as this newborn calf was learning to swim,” Capt. Chase Moore with Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching said while sharing his experience watching the whale birth with The Orange County Register.
Source: Daily Mail, Yahoo Entertainment, People, Metro, image from Twitter: @KTVU