Extremely rare and ‘special' whale sighting near South Florida coast

A South Florida father got quite the belated birthday gift on a fishing trip with his son Tuesday morning.

Captain Abie Raymond and his father David captured rare footage of a whale breaking the surface in the waters off Sunny Isles Beach.

Abie says he and his father were just out for a fun day of fishing. They started out near Haulover looking for big groupers near a a shipwreck.

Without much luck, they headed north toward the Hallandale area hoping to find more fish.

Abie says they dropped their bait to the bottom again, when a large shark caught his attention.

"As I was looking at that big shark," he says. "I saw a big whale come up and surface and blow out water what looked like 30 feet in the air."

Abie and David decided to quickly wind up their grouper line and head towards the whale for a closer look.

"Before we knew it, we were doing 10 or 15 miles an hour catching up with this whale," said Abie. "That was the speed the whale was actually doing."

Abie captured videos of the wild encounter and shared them with friends and marine biologists — many of whom say the mammal appears to be a gray whale.

Marine Biologist Gerard Loisel is the owner and director of a South-Florida-based marine biology camp, where he actually once had Abie as a former student.

Loisel also saw the video and consulted a former student who is now a marine biologist specializing in whales.

Loisel says they believe the whale is definitely a type of baleen whale. Baleen whales are whales have bristly baleen plates instead of teeth, which they use to collect shrimp-like krill, plankton and small fish from the sea.

Baleen whales include blue whales, humpback whales and gray whales.

"There are several possibilities," said Loisel after conferring with his former student. "He says it's definitely not a humpback or a white whale. He believes there's a good chance it's a gray whale."

While gray whales are amazing long-distance travelers, a sighting in South Florida is extremely rare. They are found predominantly in shallow coastal waters of the north Pacific Ocean, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

Even toothed whales like orcas and sperm whales are typically strangers to the waters of South Florida. Yet, just five months ago, a pod of orcas was seen swimming in Key Largo.

"Any time you see whales of any species off the Florida coast, that's special," says Loisel.

Loisel also advises that people keep their distance if they ever encounter a whale, both for their own personal safety and the safety of the animal, as many of these species are protected and endangered.

Despite having been born and raised in South Florida, David and Abie say they've never seen anything like this.

Abie runs a fishing charter at the far north end of Miami Beach at Haulover Park. He says he has been fishing over 200 days a year for the last 16 years.

"In the entirety of my 16-year career, I've seen whales three times," Abie says. "The previous two times, I wasn't even within 40 miles of the Greater Miami area."

He says the only two other times he saw whales, he was in the direction of the Bahamas Bank.

The experience was also a first for Abie's father David who said he's only ever seen small pilot whales this close to Miami.

"It was very cool," said David. "It was an unforgettable moment in nature, and to share that with my son was extra special."