A California family got a surprise of a lifetime when a baby gray whale swam right up to their boat and wanted the people to pet it for nearly an hour's time.

A remarkable video capturing the event shows the bubbly calf poking its face up to the boat's side in Baja, California hoping for a good rub which is enthusiastically delivered by everyone aboard.

The calves are said to enjoy people petting them, especially in their mouth and baleen which serves as a filter for catching small food, explained Dave Anderson who runs Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari and recently filmed the astonishing event.

In comparing the pleasure felt by the calf to humans, he compares it to a teething child looking for something to rub on.

His passengers can be heard gleefully enjoying the surprise visit as they dip their hands into the water, some their entire arms in, to touch the fascinating creature.


'You are the best baby whale!' they screamed with one girl successfully seen accomplishing a giggly dare to kiss the whale on its head.

The trip in question was made by Captain Dave and his family recently but he did not say the specific date.


'This grey whale calf in Magdalena Bay spent nearly an hour with us in one of the best encounters I have ever had with a whale in my life. And I have had many,' Captain Dave said with the video uploaded on Monday.

Teething: The tour explains that the rubbing of the calf's gums is similar to a child teething and wanting something to rub against


Captain Dave told local station ABC 7 that it is not unusual for the animals to get surprisingly close to the boats because they love the attention of humans.

That interaction in other cases has proven deadly, however, with aboriginal hunters in Russia permitted to kill up to 140 of the whales annually, subtracting from an already weak population, he writes with the uploaded video.


He adds that 35-percent of gray whales' calves are also killed by killer whales and that fishing gear takes the lives of nearly 1,000 dolphins and whales a day.

By the early 20th century the whales’ numbers were so dismal that they were in danger of extinction.

Thanks to a major comeback with protection by international law, in 1994 the gray whale was removed from the U.S. endangered species list.
(Source)