Sad news for a baby Humpback

as we are in the midst of our season here in Vava'u, we are relishing the new lives that we see in the calves with their mothers. Sadly a little baby Humpback whale died off the Cornish coast in England, it had become separated from its mother and had located a marker buoy that it was hanging around and trying to nuzzle and potentially feed from.

Humpback whale calves stay roughly 12 months with their mothers and are feeding for them for that time, to maintain their growth rate, they need to put on approx 40-50kg of weight per day. This means continuously having a food supply. The milk from a mother is up to 60% fat, this enables the calf to gain the weight it needs to survive the colder migration routes. The mothers milk would not be able to be reproduced through an aquarium etc to hand feed this calf and raise it. One of the most important parts for a calf is the communication and necessity of contact with its mother. Sadly, there was no way for rescuers to compensate for the mothers absence.

Very sad news.......