Damien O’Malley was leading a group around Roundstone Bay and Island when he spotted a strange glimmer in the water near the shore. Initially thinking it was a dead dolphin, he tied up his boat and walked to the pier for a closer look. Instead, he was faced with a beached minke whale calf–still alive, but clearly in distress.

“I could see there’s actually a little bit of movement,” O’Malley stated, after paying closer attention.

Without hesitation, he rushed back to the boat and enlisted help from his tour group. Together, they began pouring buckets of seawater over the whale to keep it cool and hydrated. Slowly, the calf began to stir.

“It was coming back to life, really,” said O’Malley. “There was not much movement before that.”

With the tide coming in, the group knew they had a limited window to help the young whale back into deeper water. But each time it tried to swim away, it became stuck again.

After three failed attempts, O’Malley carefully manoeuvred his boat close to the animal and managed to drag it off the rocks. Once in open water, they released it.

“Soon, we had it in the middle of the water. We just let go, and once it had a little bit of space, it seemed to get its energy,” he said.

The whale successfully swam away on its fourth try. O’Malley hopes it will reunite with its mother, as the calf appeared too young to survive alone.

“It was an eventful day,” he said. “We definitely didn’t expect that on the tour.”