Posted on 05/07/2006 9:31:20 AM PDT by Auntie Mame
Humpback nuzzled saviors in thanks after they untangled her from crab lines, diver says
A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.
...
The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.
It was spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the Farallones, about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.
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By 2:30 p.m., the rescuers ... realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.
It was a very risky maneuver, Stoudt said, because the mere flip of a humpback's massive tail can kill a man.
"I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident...
Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale's mouth.
Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.
"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me, watching me," Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
My daughter was recently in Hawaii and on her first dive, three whales, a big one, a medium-sized one and one that was obviously a baby spied her and her companions and swam around them for about five minutes.
That must have been an awesome experience.
Awwwwwwww!
While I do think we've gone a little overboard in giving human attributes to animals, and I realized it when I tried to rescue a cute little mouse from the mouth of my Siamese cat, this was a very nice Sunday read....thank you.
Whales are truly remarkable creatures.
Nice story. Thanks
Aye', but have ye seen the Great White Whale.
This gold dabloon to whomever sees her first....
She breeeeeeches.
A happy ending:') I would have cut the rope in her mouth last though.
But they're not out of danger yet..the Japanese kill and eat whales...
We really do have too many laws...
You funny boy. LOL
Good one!
I once had a small encounter with a 'Humpie'. I was working on a fishing boat in Southeast Alaska when a pod of whales passed nearby. I and another deckhand took the skiff, a 16 foot Boston Whaler, out to get a closer look. We ran ahead of them and turned off the motor to see what would happen. One by one, they rolled out of the water, taking a breath through their blow-holes and looking at us with a big eye. The last one came closest and, instead of rolling as the others had done, it dived, letting the massive tail flukes wave in the air almost over our heads. That was, far and away, the most impressive thing to happen to me in the years I worked there.
Just think how many starving children could have been fed with 50 tons of whale meat.
Wow! Great story about a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My daughter said that after the encounter with the whales right at the beginning of the dive, when they discussed it later they said they should have just called off the rest of the dive, NOTHING could surpass that experience.
I didn't key "anthropomorphization", but it actually came up with three hits.
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