The Whale

​A few years back there was a beautiful story on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. You would have read about a female humpback whale that 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. The whale also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body and tail, while a line was tugging in her mouth.

Fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands located outside the Golden Gate bridge, and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that the whale was so bad off that the only way to save her was to dive in the water and untangle her. The dive team knew this was a very dangerous proposition as one slap of the whale’s tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When the whale was freed, 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 the, pushed gently around thanking them. Some said, it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The diver 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 love,
Be so blessed and fortunate…
To be surrounded by people
Who will help you get untangled
From the things that are binding you.

Thanks for listening,
Badeish Lange