A 12-metre-long humpback whale was rescued from a fishing net by a group of daring Spanish divers. The giant whale was spotted by a ship, three miles off the eastern coast of Mallorca in Spain’s Balearic islands, last week, according to a report in The Independent newspaper.
A Reuters video showed the strenuous rescue. Divers are seen removing the net from the whale’s body in different directions.
Watch the video here:
Video shows: humpback whale trapped in a drift net, divers cutting the mesh and freeing the whale, drone footage of the whale during the rescue operation, interview with diver that took part in the rescue operation pic.twitter.com/jYn4eXwyA6
— Vision Times (@vision_times) May 25, 2022
The whale’s gesture while the divers cut off the net delighted the rescue team. It seemed to be a gesture of appreciation to one of the divers.
“It was like out of this world, it was incredible, just incredible,” 32-year-old marine biologist Gigi Torras told the news agency. “It was actually my birthday on Friday when we found the whale, so it was the best birthday present ever. Sad but also incredible,” Torras is heard saying in the video.
The red fishing net had trapped and weakened the whale. The giant mammal could not even open its mouth. Initial attempts made by the divers to cut the net had failed. Later, divers from the Albatros and Skualo diving centres were called in and the whale was released from the net in 45 minutes.
Initially, the whale got a bit nervous and the divers spotted bubbles around it. After a while, the whale relaxed as the divers started releasing it from the net. “We kept cutting and cutting and she kind of gave a little wiggle to get herself out of it,” Albatros owner Torras was quoted as saying by Reuters. Torras said the mammal then stayed for a bit to regain her strength in the company of the four divers and even gave what looked like “a little thank you sign” before swimming off.
