This amazing video shows a sailor that spent over an hour working to free a whale that was entangled in fishing line. The 45-foot Bryde’s whale was severely emaciated indicating that it had probably been tangled for an extended period of time.
César Espino dove into the water and eventually worked the whale free from an illegal longline gear set off Morro Jable, a popular tourist destination on the island of Fuerteventura.
“As we approached the longline we saw a breathing whale and realized she was entangled in the rope,” Espino told Spanish journalist Lourdes Benitez Carrillo. “I quickly jumped in the water and let the whale see me to know I was going to try to free her. I felt sorry for her, so I did not hesitate a moment.”
The story translated from the Youtube video states: “A fin whale about 15 meters long was caught in the morning of Friday January 2 about two miles south of Fuerteventura near Morro Jable. The mouth and the animal’s tail had been caught in a longline a fine place full of hooks used for selective and not legal fishing. The presence of the buoy at which the longline is held struck a boat sailing in the area, with the intention to see dolphins and whales. What they did not expect the crew members was found a humpback whale large, trapped in a place that kept him from moving normally. With only a knife and for an hour, César Espino plunged again and again until he got free.”
