National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/humpbackwhale/
December 16, 2005
EXCERPTS
"A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines
near the Farallon Islands nudged its 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 she became entangled in the nylon ropes
that link crab pots."
"Rescuers evaluated the situation and "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, according to the stranding
manager of Marin's Marine Mammal Center, "because the mere flip of a
humpback's massive tail can kill a human."
"Rescuers at first did not think they were going to be able to save
the whale since "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.
And "The crab pot lines were cinched so tight...that the rope was
digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts. At least
12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the
divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward,
forcing her
to struggle mightily to keep her blow- hole out of the water."
But "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, her eye was
there winking at me, watching me,' Moskito said. 'It was an epic
moment
of my life.'
"When the whale realized she was free, it began swimming around in
circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said she swam to each
diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.
"'It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see
you,'
Moskito said. 'I never felt threatened. It was an amazing,
unbelievable
experience."
You can read the whole article on line at
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/14/HUMPY.TMP
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal
issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the
relevant
media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at
http://www.DawnWatch.com