A South Florida fishing captain gave his dad a birthday fishing trip of a lifetime when the two spotted a rare gray whale.

Abie Raymond, captain and owner of Go Hard Fishing, told USA TODAY on Wednesday that he took his father out on his boat from Haulover Inlet, just north of Miami. Normally, Raymond would have had a boat full of customers and he and his crew would be fishing for a fresh catch.

While Raymond and his dad had just begun the special birthday trip earlier this week, they saw the blast from the blowhole of a whale, which Raymond estimated was 40 feet long. He said officials later confirmed it was a gray whale.

It was the perfect birthday surprise for the lifelong area resident, Raymond said.

"He was like, definitely definitely mesmerized by the magic of it – just seeing a whale right out front, because he was born and raised here like I was," Raymond said. "He's never seen anything even like that or heard of anything like that in Miami."

Gray whales usually found in North Pacific after nearly going extinct

Raymond said the ocean current clashing with the wind made for drastic swells that day. He thought big creatures like a whale shark might surface for a joyride on the waves.

"Then lo and behold there comes this big blow out offshore of us I was like, 'Dad! There's a huge whale out there! Like a real whale!"

He said they caught up to it going around 10 knots, and it started swimming around and under the boat.

"Me and my dad will never forget the beautiful site in the cobalt blue Gulfstream water on a vivid wintery Miami Beach morning," Raymond wrote in a post on Instagram on Tuesday. "Dad even caught a few fish."

Embedded content: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1DoDtwr7oE/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Why are gray whales rare?

According to NOAA Fisheries, gray whales were once common throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They nearly became extinct through commercial fishing, and now they are usually only found in the North Pacific Ocean.

Gray whales are known for being curious about boats, and they make long annual migrations.

Raymond said wildlife officials told him it was the farthest south a gray whale has been reported in the western Atlantic Ocean. They believe the whale may have swam around the Northwest Passage around Alaska and Canada, before heading down the East Coast, he said.