|
|
The Whale
If you read the front page story of the SF Chronicle,
you would have read about 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. She 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 her just east of the Farralone 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 ...
SF Chronicle
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 gently around-she thanked them.
Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
SF Chronicle
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, and all those you live, love and work with;be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people
who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
As a safety person, you may think about this from your own point of
view, and apply the lesson to to those you work with.
Jump in, take the risk and help those who are bound by unseen obstacles,
they will eventually appreciate it, and give you that special nudge.
This story above is truncated from the original SF Chronicle Story by Peter Fimrite, and was sent in an email I received, the conclusion is not part of the original email or article, just something I added - click the link below to read the original story
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/14/MNGNKG7Q0
V1.DTL&hw=Daring+Rescue+of+Whale+off+Farallones&sn=001&sc=1000
About the process of saving whales caught in fishing lines http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/features/0107_whalerescue.html
Another great effort http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091208_Freeing_whale_of_rope_took_fortune_and_grit.html
For the underwater video, click here.
Luck and persistence helped federal and state officials free a young humpback whale entangled in hundreds of feet of plastic rope.
The delicate operation was detailed yesterday by representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coast Guard and state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Of concern were the stricken youngster's docile but massive mother swimming nearby — along with her male companion, who at one point appeared aggravated, rapidly circling the rescue boat and spouting.
"We had to watch that escort very carefully," said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager with NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, who coordinated the rescue effort.
The operation Sunday at Penguin Bank, a submerged shelf extending from western Molokai, required slowing down the 25-foot whale so he could be safely approached by boat.
At first, the officials recalled, they tried attaching floating buoys, a modified technique similar to barrels used on the great white shark in the movie "Jaws."
But the yearling took three buoys down into the ocean as it dived, they said.
Then they tried a sea anchor, typically used to keep the bow of a boat pointed into oncoming seas in a storm. That slowed the whale down from roughly 5 mph to 2 mph — enough to try to remove the rope.
A large flying cutter was attached to the end of a sailboat mast to cut the tangled rope. At that time the yearling's mother was idle, but her escort appeared aggravated, rapidly circling the lifeboat and doing trumpet blows, the officials said.
Aboard the lifeboat were Lyman, along with David Schofield, marine mammal stranding response coordinator of the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Regional Office, and David Nichols, acting sanctuary co-manager. All had to make sure the yearling's tail would not brush the bow of the boat as they disentangled the rope from the mammal.
Rescue crews save young whale
About 350 feet of rope was removed, seven feet of which was wrapped between and around the whale's mouth.
The agencies had been tracking the whale's movement since last Tuesday after it was spotted by a sunrise whale tour off of Maui. Rough sea conditions prevented team members from responding sooner.
The yearling was tagged with a telemetry buoy that had a GPS and satellite transmitter attached, helping officials track its movement. Sunday's sea conditions were ideal for crew members to rescue the yearling humpback whale after it was spotted from a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter.
Twelve humpback whales have been rescued since 2003. Officials said whale rescues are not always successful.
"This was a huge cooperative effort," said Schofield. "We were lucky."
For the underwater video, click here.
Luck and persistence helped federal and state officials free a young humpback whale entangled in hundreds of feet of plastic rope.
The delicate operation was detailed yesterday by representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coast Guard and state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Of concern were the stricken youngster's docile but massive mother swimming nearby — along with her male companion, who at one point appeared aggravated, rapidly circling the rescue boat and spouting.
"We had to watch that escort very carefully," said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager with NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, who coordinated the rescue effort.
The operation Sunday at Penguin Bank, a submerged shelf extending from western Molokai, required slowing down the 25-foot whale so he could be safely approached by boat.
At first, the officials recalled, they tried attaching floating buoys, a modified technique similar to barrels used on the great white shark in the movie "Jaws."
But the yearling took three buoys down into the ocean as it dived, they said.
Then they tried a sea anchor, typically used to keep the bow of a boat pointed into oncoming seas in a storm. That slowed the whale down from roughly 5 mph to 2 mph — enough to try to remove the rope.
A large flying cutter was attached to the end of a sailboat mast to cut the tangled rope. At that time the yearling's mother was idle, but her escort appeared aggravated, rapidly circling the lifeboat and doing trumpet blows, the officials said.
Aboard the lifeboat were Lyman, along with David Schofield, marine mammal stranding response coordinator of the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Regional Office, and David Nichols, acting sanctuary co-manager. All had to make sure the yearling's tail would not brush the bow of the boat as they disentangled the rope from the mammal.
About 350 feet of rope was removed, seven feet of which was wrapped between and around the whale's mouth.
The agencies had been tracking the whale's movement since last Tuesday after it was spotted by a sunrise whale tour off of Maui. Rough sea conditions prevented team members from responding sooner.
The yearling was tagged with a telemetry buoy that had a GPS and satellite transmitter attached, helping officials track its movement. Sunday's sea conditions were ideal for crew members to rescue the yearling humpback whale after it was spotted from a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter.
Twelve humpback whales have been rescued since 2003. Officials said whale rescues are not always successful.
"This was a huge cooperative effort," said Schofield. "We were lucky."
Article written by By Rosemarie Bernardo POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 08, 2009 by Star Bulleting
![[Preview]](http://media.starbulletin.com/images/20091208_kitv_whale.jpg)
