- The Whale
- If you read the front
page story of the SF Chronicle,
- you would have read about 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. She also
had hundreds of yards of
- line rope wrapped around her body, her
tail, her torso, a line
- tugging in her mouth.
- A fisherman spotted her just east of the
Farralone Islands
- (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an
environmental group for help.
- Within a few hours, the rescue team
arrived and determined that she was
- so bad off, the only way to save her was
to dive in and untangle her...
-
- One slap of the tail could kill a
rescuer.
-
They worked for hours with curved knives and
eventually freed her.
- When she was free, the divers say she
swam in what seemed like joyous circles.
- She then came back to each and every
diver, one at a time, and nudged them,
- pushed gently around-she thanked them.
Some said it was the most incredibly
beautiful experience of their lives.
-
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth
says her eye was
- following him the whole time, and he
will never be the same.
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