Spanish swimmer saves whale caught in illegal fishing net

A Spanish man has been hailed as a hero after he and a friend risked their lives to rescue a trapped whale in the Canary Islands reports The Local.

Cesar Espino was on a whale and dolphin-spotting boat on January 2nd when he saw the 15-metre long whale, which was trapped in an illegal fishing net.
He dived down and cut away at the net with a knife to free the creature, whose mouth and tail had become entangled.
"As we approached the fishing line we saw the breathing of the whale and we realized that she was entangled in the net," Espino told Spanish reporters.
"I quickly jumped into the water and let the whale see me so she knew I was trying to help her. I felt compassion for her and didn’t hesitate in freeing her from the ropes," he added.
Espino worked away using only a snorkel for over an hour, finally managing to free the whale.
First, he managed to free the whale’s tail from the netting, but freeing its mouth was more complicated.
"The netting across her mouth was from side to side, like the reigns of a horse, and it was quite difficult to take off," Espino said.
The pair said they watched for several minutes as it then gained speed and swam away.

The dramatic rescue was caught on camera by Espino’s friend and has already been viewed thousands of times on YouTube.

Comments

An increase in the number of irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong

Some good news this week about the Irrawaddy dolphins of the Mekong River. A joint report from the Cambodian government and the World Wildlife Foundation tells how, following decades of seemingly irreversible decline, the population is increasing. They report the number of dolphins in the region has risen from 80 to 92 in the past two years—the first increase since scientists began keeping records more than twenty years ago. The first official census in 1997 estimated that there were 200 Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong, a figure that fell steadily due to bycatch and habitat loss. By 2015, only 80 dolphins remained. The recent census showed that more dolphins are surviving into adulthood, and there’s been a significant drop in overall deaths. Nine calves were born this year, raising the number of dolphins born in the past three years to 32. Seng Teak, Country Director of WWF Cambodia, said the census had positive implications for the Greater Mekong region, wher...

A blue whale spotted in Tasmanian waters - only the eighth sighting in six years

There have only been eight blue whale sightings in southeast Tasmanian waters in the last six years so the Marine Conservation Program was naturally a little bit excited this week.

The blue whale in the red sea

Huge Blue Whale Sighted in the Red Sea for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian : "On Tuesday morning, a fisherman off the coast of Eilat, Israel spotted something unexpected: a huge whale swimming along in the Red Sea. Experts were even more surprised to discover that the creature was a blue whale—marking the first time that the world’s largest mammal has been seen in the Red Sea, as Zafrir Rinat and Almog Ben Zikri report for Haaretz. Two days after it popped up in Israeli waters, Egypt’s environment ministry announced that the animal had also been sighted in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba, according to Aham Online. The ministry revealed that the whale measures 24 meters (nearly 80 feet) long, and belongs to a subspecies known as the pygmy blue whale. Monitoring teams in the South Sinai and the Red Sea have been deployed to track the whale’s movements." 'via Blog this'

Whales and other cetaceans

Search This Blog