Sunday, February 8, 2009

THE WHALE

This excerpt was taken from Peter Legge's book called The Power to Soar Higher in the Chapter called Living with Gratitude. 

I read a front-page story in one of San Francisco's local newspapers, the SF Chronicle , about a female humpback whale that became entangled in a spider web of crab traps adn lines. She was weighed 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 all around her body including her tail and a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that the whale was in such dire straights that the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. It was a very dangerous proposition considering that one slap of her tail could kill a rescuer.
The team worked together for hours with curved knives and eventually freed the whale.
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 gently, as it to say "Thank you for helping me."
Some of the team members 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.

This story really touched me. I have had experiences somewhat like this in the Great Bear Rainforest with bears, wolves and whales and understand what they guys were feeling. I have never had the incredible experience though of being touched and watched. They are so incredible, so much we need to learn. We hunted these incredible, smart mammals almost to extinction. They are making a great comeback now on the north coast. Can't wait to go back and see them this summer. 

1 comment:

Jocelyn said...

I vividly remember that rescue back in Dec '05. Not only because it was a whale rescue, but my Marine Mammal Center was first responders on the scene and organized the rescue. Here's a link to more news and pics on the rescue:

http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/learning/comm/whalerescue.asp

A must-see for me in the GBR is a bubble-feeding up close in person (though, not toooo close - LOL!!).