San Ignacio Lagoon is the birthing and mating spot for hundreds of gray whales that travel about 6,000 miles from their Alaskan feeding ground. The area is the one place where the gray whales are safer than anywhere else and is also the one place that sees more and more people travelling there to experience the whales for themselves.

Greg and Barbara are two of those people and they were treated to an extraordinary experience when they were out in one of the many boats that bring tourists out to watch the whales. While in the boat they were approached with her calf, who had a lobster trap line stuck in its mouth.

As they reached out to touch the whales it appeared as if the mother whale lifted her calf up to look at the humans in the boat; and perhaps help her calf. The guide on the boat immediately contacted a resident scientist who try to locate and help the calf.

And these are the creatures that we are hunting to extinction.

Sad.

via Laughing Squid / On World One Ocean