Humpback whales are incredible creatures and among some of the largest and most magnificent animals on the planet, it’s a real treat to see one in real life, but when a baby humpback signaled to a fisherman that it required help what they saw, shocked them to their core And forced them to spring into action immediately. Alan had been a fisherman for all of his life, his family lived in Perth, Australia and they had always loved the sea. His great-grandfather had set up a fishing business that grew and went from strength to strength and eventually that business got passed to Alan’s grandfather and then his father, and now it finally belonged to him.
He had spent years of his life on the warm oceans, catching fish that could be sold at the market and he loved the calm quiet of the oceans. That’S not to say it wasn’t a tricky and difficult job because it really was the hours were long and the conditions could often be perilous, but overall Alan couldn’t dream of of doing anything else for a living every morning he would head out in his boat and Sail a mile or two off of the coast before casting his huge net from the back of the boat, these nets would sit in the waters held down by weights at the bottom and held up by floats at the top.
Fish would then swim into the Nets and get caught and after several hours, Allen would finally wind them in and collect all of the fish from them. Sometimes he would find small sections of the net torn away, but these were easily fixable. He assumed that Turtles and other sea life had got momentarily caught up before freeing themselves and swimming away to safety that wasn’t a problem, as he very rarely pulled anything other than fish up. He would sometimes get people coming to the dock, to tell him that his former fishing was ruining the environment and endangering other animals, but Alan never saw that. So he believed it to be none of his concern.
He always chalked it up as them over exaggerating and making more of a fast than they needed to be little did he know how much his views would change after one amazing and Fateful Encounter Allen had been out on the ocean for around eight or nine hours. One day and he still had several hours to go until he was going to pull his net back in. He had positioned the Nets and driven the boat a short way away so as not to Spook the fish in order to stay cool and get some paperwork done. Allen spent most of his time in the cabin nothing much happened out at Sea, so he just got on with his work, but all of a sudden, the sound of slashing made him raise his head and peek it out of the window. He couldn’t see anything so he returned to his work.
Then, several seconds later there was the same Big Splash and again Alan looked but saw nothing. He frowned thinking that maybe he needed to get some rest, but then, all of a sudden, a whale leapt out of the water breaching the surface and splashing down into the sea Allen was shocked. But what was even more shocking was that it was a baby whale that was throwing itself into the air and it was pretty close to the boat. The baby whale kept leaping out of the water splashing and blowing puffs of air. Not only was it unusual to see whales so comfortable, coming near fishing boats, but it was even rarer to see this behavior from a whale calf.
The calf got closer and closer until it was able to gently bump its head against the hull of the boat. He was clearly trying to get Alan’s attention, but why? What was the issue? Where was the calf’s mother Ellen was intrigued and had a lot of questions and he quickly decided that he needed to investigate grabbing his scuba equipment. He ran from the cabin and was sat on the side of the boat and preparing to dive in after only a few moments Allen tested his oxygen tank made sure his mask was sealed and working and threw himself into the water once under the Crystal Blue Water.
He looked around to see the baby whale patiently waiting for him. The calf then LED Allen toward the Open Seas and he followed as quickly as he could. The baby whale kept. Looking back to check the small man was still following. Allen was unsure why he was following the calf or where to, but when he finally realized he couldn’t believe his eyes from out of the blue emerged a vast and beautiful adult humpback whale.
She was clearly the baby’s mother, Alan modeled, at the amazing sea creature, as it slowly swam towards the calf. Is this what the baby wanted to show him? It quickly became clear, it was, but it wasn’t for the reason Allen was expecting attached to the tale of the massive mother whale was a fishing net and not just any fishing net Allen’s fishing net. It was wrapped tightly around the whale’s tail and the weight of it was preventing her from being able to swim properly. The drag of such a huge net must have been immense and pulling.
The net must have been tiring even for a huge humpback whale. A sense of guilt and Dread descended on Ellen and he felt around his belt for his knife. He knew what he had to do swimming towards the massive whale he started to cut away as much of the netting as he could. It wasn’t an easy task, as there was so much netting and the mother was clearly in some distress, but Alan tried to work as fast as he could, but at one point the distressed whale dived into the deep much further than Alan could scuba dive. Luckily, after several moments, she returned even presenting her Mighty tale to the tiny man that was trying to help her.
It was as if she understood, but could Alan complete the job or would the whale get spooked again and swim off for good working extra fast Allen. Finally, got his knife behind the final bunch of knitting that was wrapped around the whale’s giant tail and with one giant tug slid through it and released the whale for good. He could see the abrasions and cuts that the net had caused and he winced at the sizable gashes along the tail. His Nets and his irresponsible fishing had done that. Luckily, though, these gashes were mere scratches to the whale and they would not threaten her life.
The calf swam towards Ellen and nuzzled its head against him, as if to thank him, Allen, returned his knife to his belt and smiled noting that the giant baby was acting as if it were a massive dog. The mother then circled Ellen and he truly got a sense of her scale. She was enormous, but after circling the diver that had just saved her, she ran her body along him as she slowly ascended towards the surface. Her final Act was to cap Allen with her giant Tail as if hugging him before taking a huge breath of air and following her cough as they dive deep into the dark depths of the ocean. Finally, free, but the story doesn’t quite end there.
When Alan returned to his boat, he pulled the netting. In with him. It was lucky that the boat was pretty large as the sheer amount of netting that had been wrapped around the whale’s tail startled him when he got back to Shore and waited all, he discovered that the netting weighed over a ton. No wonder the whale was in such distress having to swim around with such a huge weight attached to her. Clearly, those people that told him his former fishing was ruining the environment and endangering other animals were right.
But could he change how generations of his family had fished, or was he too stuck in the past and in Tradition? Luckily, Allen’s eyes had been opened and he dedicated the rest of his life to responsible fishing, even campaigning to get the massive and highly damaging Nets banned. He had seen how these nets could have easily killed even the largest of whales, and he didn’t want to contribute to the death of such amazing and beautiful creatures, and whenever anyone asked him why he had such a change of heart, he would always tell them about The fateful day that a baby whale came to him and asked him for help. So now it’s over to you, what did you this incredibly moving story? How would you react if you saw a baby humpback whale signaling to you that it needed help and what are your thoughts on these terrible vast fishing nets that plague our seas?