When Tommy Wainwright heard reports that a whale carcass was spotted just minutes from his home in Sapphire Beach, Australia, he grabbed his drone and jumped into action.
“I took my drone down to the headland, which overlooks the location in question, fully expecting to see a whale carcass and possibly some sharks feeding,” Wainwright told McClatchy News. “As soon as I arrived, I spotted a whale surfacing about 500 meters offshore, so I launched the drone and headed out.”
Wainwright said he initially thought he was looking at an adult whale being escorted by a group of dolphins. But he soon realized he had discovered something much more unusual: a mother and baby.
“The baby was very fresh, white and quite floppy,” Wainwright said. “The mother was pushing it towards the surface and propping it up to breathe. It was clear to me that the mother had just given birth.”
More than 35,000 humpback whales are migrating past the New South Wales coast, Lawrence Orel from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service told McClatchy News. The whales travel from their feeding grounds near the Antarctic ice shelf to the warmer Coral Sea where they breed.
During this period of migration, finding whale carcasses is not uncommon, Orel said.
After spotting the duo, Wainwright continued his search for the dead whale, reported near Coffs Harbour — that’s when “the lightbulb went off,” he said.
“I realized that the ‘dead whale’ reported by members of the public was in fact the mother in labor for the last few days,” Wainwright said.
Wainwright and park rangers monitored the mother and baby in the days following the discovery.
“They both looked very active,” Wainwright said. “I guess the theory is they are hanging around in the calm, shallow waters off Sapphire Beach, gaining strength before rejoining the migration north to the Great Barrier Reef.”
The birth is a rare occurrence, Orel said.
“While humpback whale birth(s) are not common (in) NSW water it was a really pleasant surprise for rangers to see the newborn, especially as they were expecting to find a carcass,” which could be more than 40 feet long and weigh nearly 40 tons, Orel said.
Rangers believe the calf is about 13 feet long, but it is expected to “grow rapidly,” according to Orel. It will require up to 53 gallons of milk each day as it builds strength to make the trek back to its southern feeding grounds in a few months.
Coffs Harbour is about 330 miles northeast of Sydney.
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