Gray Whale Mom Gives Birth Off Dana Point Coastline: Video

DANA POINT, CA — Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari recently encountered a mother gray whale giving birth to a live calf, the whale-watching company announced over social media.

"Our whale-watching passengers and crew had a once-in-a-lifetime sighting off the coast of Dana Strands Beach in Dana Point, California, when we encountered a gray whale giving birth to a calf," they said.

At first, the sighting appeared to be a typical migrating gray whale though it was behaving slightly erratic.

"Passengers and crew saw something orange and red in the water that they thought might have been kelp," Captain Dave's spokesperson and drone operator Matt Stumpf said. "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."

The newborn calf surfaced, then began learning to swim and bonding with its mother, known as a cow.

"The female even brought the calf over to the boats as if to show off her offspring and say hello," Stumpf said.

As the little whale nuzzled its mother and learned how to swim at the surface to breathe, onlookers shouted their joy and amazement at the rare scene.

"It's so floppy!" one whale watcher remarked of the calf's attempts to swim under its mother's watchful eye.

Gray whales prefer to give birth in Baja California, Mexico's warm and protected lagoons. The lagoons offer safety from predators such as orcas and warm water for calves who have not yet built up a thick layer of blubber.

Although some gray whales do give birth in Baja, there are times when calves won't wait and are born during the migration.

Gray whales migrate annually along the U.S. west coast, swimming 10,000 to 12,000 miles round-trip. It is one of the longest migrations of any mammal. The whales travel from their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas near Alaska to Baja's mating and birthing lagoons and back again.

Gray whale calves are about 15 feet long when they're born and will gain over 50 pounds a day feeding on their mother's milk. Gray whale mothers can lose 30% of their body weight, nursing one calf on milk that contains over 50% fat.

Gray whale adults average between 40 to 50 feet in length and weigh 30 to 40 tons.

For more information or to plan your whale-watching adventure, visit Capt. Dave's Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari online.