Featured Image Credit: Juan Antonio Menares Henriquez via Facebook
Imagine… it’s just after the new year, and you’re out on a relaxing boating day off the coast of Antofagasta, Chile. Then, underneath the water, you see a humpback whale in distress. Only 500 metres away, and not moving very much… What would you do?
Help it, of course!
It was caught by the tail by a “ghost net”, which are fishing gillnets that have been left or lost by ocean fishermen, and they can be nearly invisible in dim light— perfect for catching unwitting animals of all sizes such as shrimp, turtles, and in this case whales. They then have no way to escape.
The family positioned themselves next to the whale, “… and my two children dived back into the water and there we were successful in being able to cut the mesh and be able to pull the mesh up,” Juan Menares said. The family then brought the “mesh” nets to their boat, where it would be safely away from potentially catching something else.
The footage of the recovered netting can be seen below.
Once the net was sufficiently cut away, the humpback was able to shake free and swim off, mostly unharmed, with only friction-based wounds (caused by attempting to pull itself free) where the net had been.
Meneares told local news that he was glad to have been able to help the entangled cetacean, “That feeling after doing something good, for me and my family is something special. It fills me with joy, fills me with pride, and to be able to do something that I really had never done before.”
Menares also reportedly told local media that Chile is in need of more “laws to protect the mammals and the marine ecosystem in general.”