Tourists in a Baja California lagoon enjoyed an extraordinary encounter last week when a gray whale calf twirled playfully for a prolonged period within feet of their boat.
The accompanying footage, captured by Charlie Harmer of Silver Shark Adventures, shows the young whale spinning rapidly, as if showing off, as passengers laugh and cheer.
“That was amazing!” one of them exclaims afterward.
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The unusual encounter occurred March 31 in Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, near the town of Guerrero Negro in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
Harmer told For The Win Outdoors that the mother and calf approached their boat and the calf became playful while mom simply “logged” or rested at the surface.
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“Before we knew it, we noticed the calf blowing bubbles underneath us from time to time and doing these barrel rolls or spins off the side of the boat,” Harmer said. “Most were a couple of spins but there were a couple of times when it would spin and pick up speed with each spin.
“Everyone got really excited. It seemed like the calf was feeding off our energy and continued to spin. I’ve witnessed this behavior before from large adults but at a much slower pace. I’ve never seen a calf spin like this.”
The encounter, enjoyed by passengers from San Diego and Seattle, lasted five hours. Harmer described it as “one of the coolest days I’ve ever had in 10-plus years with a mom-and-calf pair.”
He added: “We all agreed we should name this whale ‘Twirly’ because of all the spinning and twirling it was doing.”
Baja California’s lagoons are seasonal nursing grounds for thousands of gray whales that migrate from Arctic waters during the winter.
The northbound migration back to summer feeding grounds off Alaska is underway but mothers with calves are generally last to leave the lagoons.