If you read the front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, Dec 15, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines.
The fifty-foot whale was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her her tail, her torso and a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her - a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
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12 comments:
these gentle giants are really fascinating creatures. their hunting techniques are very cleaver.
there is one whale that u have to know about. it is the one and only albino humpback whale in the world and its sightings are updated in a website set up for it.
http://www.migaloowhale.org/
the whale thanking back was a great one:)
dunno how many human beings show gratitude
.. good one shalini
www.chronicwriter.com
wow, thats such a beautiful and touching story... tough to imagine what the rescuers might have felt.
thanks for sharing :)
Truly a personal trait that we all need to have in our lives :)
thanks da...
that was such a touching story!
@Vasanthan
Gentle giants.. well said. Will urely check out the site. I have always wanted one of the water adventures like scuba diving, snorkelling et all but have always been scared of water *sigh*
@Chronic writer
Thank you! Guess there is lots to learn from these animals :)
@Lena
Yup, would have been such a touching moment for the rescuers . Glad you liked it :)
@Arv
Absolutely! but its such a rare sight in the recent times.
@Pisku
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it . Great to have you at my space too. Will visit yours soon :)
it's beautiful! :-)
That's a real touching article...i agree with you, we got to learn a lot from animals:) gratitude is something we rarely feel.
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