Featured Image Credit: Youtube/ Core Sea
We keeping sharing stories of marine life getting stuck in discarded fishing gear. It’s a major problem that is too often deadly.
But this story has a great ending and an even better tale of fishy friendship.
Snorkelers with the marine research and conservation organization called Core Sea first posted the video, filmed on March 20th.
But it’s not just this act of kindness that’s driving this video’s popularity. There’s something special about the two-minute clip.
Check it out:
Jonathan Balcombe, author of many books on animal behavior and emotion, had this to say to National Public Radio:
“This touching video shows virtuous behavior in two distantly related vertebrates. A porcupinefish bravely keeps vigil for his entrapped comrade, while a kindhearted snorkeler gingerly negotiates the situation with an improvised cutting implement — the bottom of a broken bottle.
“A skeptic might think the bystander fish is just curious, but if that were the case, the fish would have fled the scene when the large ape approached. Like many fishes, pufferfishes (of which the porcupinefish is a member) can live a decade or more and can form lasting bonds with others of their kind or with human caregivers.”
h/t: NPR