A Chilean family saved a humpback whale which had been entangled by fishing nets on Monday close to a beach in Mejillones, along the coast in Antofagasta, Chilean media reported.
Fifty-two-year-old Juan Menares, who owns a sea tourism company, and his family were enjoying a New Years’ outing, when they spotted the humpback whale in distress, about 500 metres from their boat.
The family took a closer look at the 10-metre whale, and noticed it was not moving and had become entangled in a fishing net on its tail fin, local media reported.
They went to find the necessary equipment and thus two of Menares’ children began the manoeuvre, which was risky due to the size of the mammal and the weight of the rope.
“We came back to position ourselves next to the whale and my two children dived back into the water and there we were successful in being able to cut the mesh and be able to pull the mesh up,” Menares said.
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Finally, on the fourth attempt, they managed to cut the net and release the giant cetacean. Once the net was cut, the whale was able to thrash itself free and swim out to sea.
After the rescue, the animal only had slight wounds on its fins due to the friction from the rope.
According to the director of the Centre of Studies and Environmental Education at the University of Antofagasta, Carlos Guerra, the net was for industrial use due to its size. He added this is the second time recently a humpback whale became trapped in fishing nets.
“The corks (which the net had) and size of the cork indicates it is an industrial net. And this would be the second whale of the same species that has been trapped. Because there was another whale just like this one, the same species but who died. That whale washed up dead to the south of (the city) of Tocopilla,” Guerra said.
Menares said he felt happy his family had been able to help the whale.
“That feeling after doing something good, to do, more than family and for me family is something special, fills me with joy, fills me with pride and to be able to do something that I really had never done before, it was the first time,” he said.
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Guerra added whales suffer considerable stress under these circumstances.
“Any obstruction in the whale’s fins, obviously causes a great problem of displacement. And obviously, causes great stress, to have something entangled without being able to get rid of it,” Guerra said.
Menares told local media that Chile needs to implement more laws to protect the mammals and the marine ecosystem in general.
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