Heading out for a day of whale watching, Cesar Espino and a friend were off the coast of the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, Spain, when they came across a 50-foot-long whale. While she should have been swimming free in the ocean, though, they could immediately sense that something else was going on with her. In fact, the female was trapped on an illegal fishing line which was anchored by ropes and hooks.
Racing underwater with nothing but a mask and a knife, they spent nearly an hour trying to free her…
(via Daily Mail)
Racing to cut the ropes wrapped around her tail and the hooks in her mouth, Espino and his friend truly saved the day. Despite being in terrible danger as the whale struggled for freedom, in Espino’s own words, “[E]ach movement the whale made was harming it and therefore I entered the water with a knife and I positioned myself in front of the whale so it could see me; she […] looked at me as if asking for help.”
How could they not help? Bravo, gentlemen!