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Family Rushes To Cut Dying Humpback Whale From Net, Whale Says Thank You Before Leaving

By Kayla Kunkel July 6, 2018 at 4:40pm

On Valentine’s Day in 2011, Michael Fishbach was on his annual trip to photograph the Sea of Cortez.

He spends a couple months each winter to take pictures of various whale species in their natural habitat.

Fishbach, along with friends and a few family members, was out on the water one day when he came across a humpback whale that seemed to be dead.

When the magnificent creature took a large breath, the crew knew something was wrong. That’s when Fishbach decided to jump into the water to get a closer look.

He had to move cautiously because even though the animal was obviously fatigued, it could still severely injure him if it felt threatened.

What he saw was heartbreaking. The whale had gotten tangled in a gillnet that was preventing it from swimming any further.

Its pectoral fins were pinned to the side of its body and the weight of the net was pulling the creature’s tail toward the sea floor.

“It took some effort to stay focused given the great emotion of the moment,” he recalled. “The sight of this large and beautiful creature trapped and so close to death was almost overwhelming.”

The whale’s death was a very real possibility if it was not freed soon.

Fishbach was able to move the net south of the animal’s dorsal fin while he was in the water, but he decided it would be too dangerous to help any further while in the water. He swam back to the boat to radio for help, but no one would be able to come for an hour.

The crew decided they needed to act quickly.

As a team, they began systematically pulling and cutting the net to free this poor whale. After they freed one of the pectoral fins, the whale thought it was free and tried to swim off.

Instead, of tasting freedom, the whale pulled the boat behind creating a scene much like Santiago’s struggle in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.”

They were eventually able to cut the rest of the net off and free the massive creature.

It slowly swam away from the boat, but it didn’t swim away completely.

The whale began majestically breaching for the next hour celebrating its newfound freedom and thanking the crew for saving its life.

A young child on the boat exclaimed, “Mommy, I know what she’s doing! She’s showing us that she’s all free.”

Thanks to the efforts of the crew that day, the whale was able to swim away and live a full life.

Fishbach is a co-founder of the Great Whale Conservancy, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of and protecting magnificent creatures like the one he helped save that day. If you’re interested in learning more, check out their website.

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