Incredible Humpback Whale entanglement story

[Puamana4me]

A story that never gets old. Incase you may have missed it...

A front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle told the story of a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. The whale also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tai...l, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted the whale just east of the Farallon Islands (beyond the Golden Gate bridge) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived. They determined that the whale was so bad off that the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. The team worked for hours, carefully slashing through the labyrinth of lines with curved knives. Eventually, they freed her.

The divers say that once the female humpback was free to move, she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. The whale then came back to each diver, one at a time, and gave each a nudge, pushing her rescuers gently around as she was thanking them. Some divers said it was the most beautiful experience of their lives.

The diver who cut the rope out of the whale's mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time. And he will never be the same.

[KiwiSupGreg]

wow...that's a great story. thx

[DavidJohn]

Nice.

[headmount]

Whoa, the picture and the story... outasight.  Thanks

I like hearing that the humpbacks have a good focus of what's going on.  We're out there paddling around with them, often quite near, during this time of year and I want to believe I have a prayer of not getting squashed.  I get nervous when they jump.

[JimK]

Nice!

JimK
www.extremewindsurfing.com

[mrbig]

Thanks so much for bringing that incredible story to us here. Absolutely fantastic. All my relations...

[shankfoo]

Is this the same story?  This is my favorite podcast of all time:

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91701-animal-minds/
http://www.radiolab.org/story/149761-whale-saying-thank-you/

[stoneaxe]

Great story and true (if maybe anthropomorphized a bit) but the picture isn't related. Picture is awesome all by itself though. You have to wonder what emotions they feel. Far to intelligent a creature to have to suffer what man has done to them. You can't question the joy in the whale in the video though.

[blackeye]

There is a short version with a photo, but the rest is subscribers only

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Daring-rescue-of-whale-off-Farallones-Humpback-2557146.php

[Puamana4me]

yes, pic is not related...pulled this from wife's friend's facebook...so its been around the web.

Awesome story though.