Boat trippers in California were treated to a rare event Monday when their whale-watching tour happened upon a gray whale giving birth to a calf.
Initially, the passengers of Capt. Dave’s Dolphin & Whale Safari boat tour believed they had stumbled upon a scene of carnage as they spotted blood in the ocean waters before them, the Orange County Register reported. Horror soon turned to amazement as one by one the onlookers realized they were witnessing the birth of a gray whale.
Whale watchers on @DolphinSafari
boat tour in Dana Point witnessed the miracle of life as a gray whale gave birth to a baby whale calf on Jan. 2.https://t.co/K2UKYiWQW2— KTLA (@KTLA) January 4, 2023
“The range of emotion couldn’t have been more extreme,” Capt. Gary Brighouse with Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari told the Orange County Register. “It went from horror to pure joy and astonishment. It moved me to my core,” he continued.
Brighouse emphasized how lucky they were not only to witness the rarely seen event and catch it on camera, but to come away unscathed. As the calf came up to the surface to take its first breath, it reportedly got so close passengers could see its nostrils. (RELATED: Video Shows Whale Land On Bow Of 19-Foot Boat While Breaching)
“We were like, ‘Wait a minute, don’t come too close. That mom wants to protect you,’” Brighouse said, adding the mother was much larger than his 24-foot inflatable boat. As she positioned herself between the boat and the calf, she rubbed up against the raft and lifted it out of the water which Brighouse said, “was a little unsettling.”
“I was screaming my head off, I was super excited,” passenger Stacie Fox told the outlet. “I definitely thought that it was something I would not see unless I was going down to the lagoon. It’s once-in-a-lifetime type stuff.