Humpback whale and newborn calf play role in man falling overboard

By Pete Thomas

A tourist in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while flying a drone from his hotel balcony, has captured footage of a humpback whale helping to cause a man to fall overboard. Also featured in Lou Boyer's footage is a humpback whale calf born just hours earlier, and turkey vultures going after the drone.

Boyer's footage, captured Nov. 29 from Playa Grande Resort, is wonderfully narrated but here are a few observations:

The whales in question appear at 52 seconds and involve a momma humpback whale and her newborn calf – likely born the same day – and most likely a male “escort” whale.

It’s almost certainly not the father, as mentioned in the footage. Male humpbacks mate with multiple females and do not show loyalty to a single female after mating.

It’s typical for an “escort” to travel with a momma and calf, according to researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, as sort of a protector hoping, at some point, for a mating opportunity.

Also, keep an eye on the man, or person, in the pink shirt. As momma whale approaches the boat while supporting the calf on her head, the man lays down at the bow and tries to touch the calf.

As the whales swim beneath the boat toward the stern, the other people move to the port side briefly while the man in the pink shirt walks toward the stern on the starboard side.

The whale seems to be nudging the boat just before the other people rush back to the starboard side, causing the boat to sharply tilt, dumping the man overboard.

So this sudden shift of weight, perhaps more than the nudging of the vessel by the whale, appears to have led to the man falling overboard. (He was safely lifted back aboard.)

At this point, a small patch of blood appears near momma whale’s flukes. As researcher Nico Ransome pointed out via social media, the newborn calf  – note the floppiness of its flukes – and the blood could have spilled from the mother’s birth canal.

An unrelated highlight begins at 2:39, as turkey vultures begin pursuing Boyer’s drone as it’s being retrieved over the rocky landscape. At 3:18 one of the large birds swoops in and is captured on camera at close range.

Boyer, who is from Huntington Beach, Calif., took evasive measures and safely retrieved his device.