A content warning - This story contains depictions of animal death.

A marine rescue expert had a heart-breaking experience watching a female humpback whale grief as her dead calf lay on the sea floor off the Gold Coast.  

Seaworld Foundation Rescue Boat Captain Andrew Mulville spotted two humpback whales and a whale's placenta on the ocean's surface when he responded to calls of whales acting strangely off Palm Beach.  

When he dove down, he captured vision of the mother putting her fin around the calf while sitting eye to eye.  

He was told the whale remained there for three days.