Four Russian fishermen hung up their rods to take part in a daring operation to rescue two killer whales that had become stuck in a tidal trap. The orcas became ensnared in shallow waters and were unable to move further out to sea.
The whale-saving operation took place on Sakhalin Island, in Russia’s Far East, and north of Japan.
The fishermen managed to help the smaller of the two killer whales out to sea, while the larger mammal swam away on its own accord when the tide came in.
“The killer whales got trapped in shallow waters, in a so-called ocean bank - a ridge that appears when the tide goes out,” - a friend of the fishermen told local news website Sakhalin.info. “It’s only waist-deep for a human, let alone killer whales. So the guys were carefully trying to pull them out into the deep without scaring or hurting the animals.”
For nearly two hours the men would use a rope to lasso it around the whale’s fin and then pull it with a speed boat.
Killer whales frequent Sakhalin waters and this is not the first time humans have come to the rescue: in April it took a team of volunteers two days to free four whales that got stuck in ice.