Stunned whale watching passengers witness gray whale give birth off coast of Dana Point

DANA POINT, Calif. - It was a stunning sighting to see… passengers on a boat witnessed a whale giving birth off the coast Dana Point.

The once-in-a-lifetime sighting was captured on video and shared to YouTube. 

People on the boat spotted something orange and red in the water, when the boat moved a bit closer they noticed a newborn calf come up to the surface. 

"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," said Matt Stumpf, Capt. Dave’s drone operator.

Gray whales prefer to give birth in the warm waters of Baja California, Mexico. 

According to experts, gray whales migrate annually along the U.S. west coast, swimming 10,000 to 12,000 miles round-trip, the longest migrations of any mammal. 

"Witnessing this gray whale birth was one of the best things I have ever seen," Stumpf added. 

Newborn gray whale calves are about 15 feet long and will gain over 50 pounds a day feeding on their mother’s milk.