This is the heart-breaking moment the grieving mother of a young whale killed by orcas returns to her offspring 's corpse in a desperate bid to save it . Photographer Craig McInally , 40 , caught the moment two orcas tore the young humpback whale to pieces when he was diving off the Revillagigedo Islands in the Pacific . In the remarkable photos , the orcas can be seen isolating the calf from its mother and killing it before its mother returns to its side having watched it being killed . The mother ( left ) of the dead humpback calf returns to the corpse of its offspring ( right ) after having watched it being killed by orcas . After having killed the young calf , the two predatory orcas set about tearing its skin off in a brutal display of aggression . Little was left of the calf after it was drowned and torn apart in the savage attack . Pictured is the baby swimming with its mother prior to being isolated , drowned and torn apart . The images were taken by photographer Craig McInally . Left , the baby swims with its mother prior to the attack . Right , its lifeless corpse floats upside down after being savagely attacked . Mr NcInally said : 'In fifteen years of expeditions to the remote Revillagigedo Islands , the crew of the boat I was on had never seen orcas there , much less witness the orcas ' exhibit predatory behavior . 'The attack was chaotic and horrible to watch . ' Mr McInally , a qualified technical diver from San Diego , California , had been diving with the humpback school the day before the attack . In the photos , the humpback calf can be seen swimming closely with its mother before the larger killer wales separate the pair before slowly drowning and killing the baby . Craig added : 'The first day we were diving with the humpbacks the mother was patient and comfortable with us . 'She allowed us to get extremely close and the baby seemed inquisitive , passing close to us whenever coming up to breathe every three minutes or so . Photographer Craig McInally , 40 , caught the rare event when he was diving . Here the baby and mother are pictured swimming together . Fully grown humpback whales , such as the one pictured by Mr McInally , can grow to be 16metres in length . The baby calf cuddles up to its mother during a swim through a Pacific . 'The next day another diver noticed an odd fin breaking the surface . I looked over and was shocked to see the unmistakable fin of a male orca . 'We grabbed our cameras and dive gear and after a moment we realized the orcas were here for the baby . 'The battle was hard to follow . The baby was trying to escape and get back to its mum , but the orcas coordinated the attack to keep the baby separate . 'The next tactic was to injure the baby , perhaps to slow it down . Finally , the orcas succeeded in drowning the baby and then fed on the blubber . 'It was not until back onboard that I had the time to process the immensity of the event and reflect on the raw power of nature . It changed me forever . ' Photographer Craig McInally , 40 , caught the rare event when he was diving off the Revillagigedo Islands in the Pacific ( pictured ) . In this image , fins breaking the surface reveal the commotion underwater .
Photographs show a humpback whale calf being isolated and killed by orcas before its mother returns to its side . The mother can be seen mourning as it circles the lifeless skin of its offspring before it was torn to shreds . Incredible pictures show the whale killer orca whales tearing the skin off the humpback whale calf 's corpse . Photographer Craig ##son filmed the scenes on camera after having dived with the humpbacks a day earlier .