Kingscliff, North Coast, New South Wales, Australia

On July 28, 2026, drone pilot Alexander Forrest was volunteering for ORRCA — Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia — filming the annual humpback migration on what they call the “humpback highway”.

He noticed one female swimming unusually slow behind her pod. Then a cloud of red bloomed — he thought predator attack at first — and then a pale white calf shot to the surface for its very first breath.

It’s only the *4th time in history a full humpback birth has ever been filmed*, and the *first time ever captured by drone* from the air.

The mother stayed with the calf for hours after, teaching it how to breathe, how to be. You can see it in the end — that tiny white body learning how to be held by the ocean that is not separate from us.

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