Guests aboard a whale-watching cruise in California, USA, had the privilege of witnessing a whale giving birth to its calf, before showing it off to the boat.
‘Our whale watching passengers and crew had a once-in-a-lifetime sighting off the coast of Dana Strands Beach in Dana Point, California,’ Capt Dave’s Dana Point Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari said.
‘At first, the sighting appeared to be a typical migrating gray whale. As the boat slowly approached the animal, our crew noticed it was behaving sporadically. Passengers and crew saw something orange and red coloured in the water that they thought might have been kelp. Instead, a newborn calf came up to the surface!’
Gray whales migrate annually along the US west coast from their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas near Alaska.
The whales prefer to calf in the warmer water and protected lagoon of Baja California in Mexico, which offers safety from predators such as orcas.
‘For a minute, many of us thought it may be a shark or predatory event. But no, instead of the end of life, it was the beginning of a new one! After surfacing, the newborn calf began learning how to swim and bonding with its mother.’
After surfacing the newborn began swimming and bonding with its bother. ‘The female even brought the calf over to the boats as if to show off her offspring and say hello.’
Watch the footage of this sighting below.
Picture: screenshot
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