Underwater rescue: Spanish divers free whale trapped in illegal fishing net
In a gripping underwater rescue, Spanish divers have freed a 12-metre lengthy humpback whale entangled in an unlawful drift web off the Balearic island of Mallorca.
One of many divers, 32-year-old marine biologist Gigi Torras, stated final Friday’s rescue and a bit of gesture of appreciation from the enormous mammal had been additionally a birthday current for her — the “finest ever” in her phrases.
“It was like out of this world, it was unbelievable, simply unbelievable,” she instructed Reuters on Tuesday. It was solely the third time {that a} humpback has been seen across the Balearic Islands.
The weakened whale had been noticed by a ship about 5 kilometres off the japanese coast of Mallorca, prompting Palma de Mallorca’s Aquarium marine rescue centre into motion.
They found the whale fully trapped within the crimson fishing web so it couldn’t even open its mouth.
Marine biologist and diver Gigi Torras describes the sensation of being beneath water, beside a trapped humpback whale, working with colleagues to chop away the tangled fishing nets that trapped the 12-metre lengthy mammal.
After preliminary makes an attempt to chop the web from a ship failed, divers from Albatros and Skualo diving centres joined the hassle and plunged into the ocean to take away the mesh with their knives in a daring 45-minute operation.
“The primary ten seconds she bought a bit nervous, you realize, like bubbles in all places, however then I do not know, name me loopy, however I feel she knew we had been there to assist her and she or he simply relaxed and we began working from the entrance of her mouth backwards,” stated Albatros proprietor Torras.
“We stored reducing and reducing and she or he form of gave a bit of wiggle to get herself out of it,” Torras stated, including that the mammal then stayed for a bit to regain her energy within the firm of the 4 divers and even gave what seemed like “a bit of thanks signal” earlier than swimming off.
Drift nets are nicknamed “partitions of demise” for the amount of different sea life they catch along with the fish they’re set to seize. They had been banned by the United Nations 30 years in the past.
