R-44 Scares Predator Away From Southern Right Whale Off West Australia Coast

The pilot of a tourist helicopter on a photo mission may has saved a Southern Right Whale calf from being eaten just after birth by shooing a nine to 12 foot shark away from the area with his aircraft.

The Sunday Mail of Brisbane, Australia reports that pilot Brett Campany of Wild Blue Helicopters and Margaret River Tourism operator Sean Blocksidge noticed the calving whale close to shore during their photo shoot, and the shark patrolling the area nearby. "Brett just made a decision to drop the helicopter above the ocean and herd the shark out to deeper water," Blocksidge told the paper.

He said that the shark beat a hasty retreat when the R-44 flew close to the water. "I'm all for letting nature do its thing but it would have sucked for the whale to have gone through 12 months of gestation only to have its baby gobbled up on birth," he said.

He said that he and Campany debated returning to the area to check on the whale, and when they did, they found a group of dolphins had encircled the whale and her calf to protect them from predators. At that point, they decided to let nature do what it does best.

(R-44 pictured in file photo)

FMI: http://wildbluehelicopters.com.au/