Thursday, January 26, 2012

Encountering Greatness.....( From the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)


Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
A story that never gets old. Incase you may have missed it...

A front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle told the story of 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. The whale 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 the whale just east of the Farallon Islands (beyond the Golden Gate bridge) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived. They determined that the whale was so bad off that the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. The team worked for hours, carefully slashing through the labyrinth of lines with curved knives. Eventually, they freed her.

The divers say that once the female humpback was free to move, she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. The whale then came back to each diver, one at a time, and gave each a nudge, pushing her rescuers gently around as she was thanking them. Some divers said it was the most beautiful experience of their lives.

The diver who cut the rope out of the whale’s mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time. And he will never be the same.
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This has been all over Twitter and Facebook this week.....so amazing and inspiring it had to be shared.
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Appreciating What Is Under the Sea....

4 comments:

Fran said...

Wow! What a story. Great they could save her- but how to fix the root of the problem?

Carolyn Moon said...
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Carolyn Moon said...

I saw this as well and I got all excited with eyes filled with tears of joy and this was in my living room. Oh Allie if I had been out there very close I would have been beside myself!

My oldest daughter went on a boat to whale watch when visiting friends at Cape Cod. After getting over the motion sickness for it was a small trawler; one finally appeared and got very close to the boat. She could see an eye and after awhile, the whale swam out and joined some others.
She said that it was an experience watching them "show out" and then move on. They were all blowing kisses and her friends were crying as the whales were moving on. (I think she was too-but didn't want to admit it) The guy conducting the tour smiled and said it happens all the time. They got somewhat embarrassed after the whales disappeared for losing it in the joy of the moment.

Oh Allie, the wonders of life.

Remember the little boy in the documentary said at the end that the whale was thanking them for freeing her. ✯◡✯

enigma4ever said...

it is really something isn't it....so so moving....thank you Carolyn for sharing...very grateful...