She thanks him in the most special way. Michael Fishbach from Great Whale Conservancy recounts with us his very unique encounter with Valentina the whale — from spotting her floating at the surface of the sea of Cortez to the moment they were finally able to set her free
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00I came upon a young humpback whale that appeared to be dead.
00:04Suddenly, the whale rigorously exhaled.
00:07I quickly discovered the whale was severely entangled in a gill net of the type used by
00:12local fishermen.
00:13There were no words we could share, but I wanted to let the whale know that we were
00:18there to help.
00:19The tail was entangled in so much gear it was weighted down a full 15 feet below the
00:24surface.
00:26Both pectoral fins were pinned to the side of its body, and I must admit I was a bit
00:31scared because I knew the whale was frightened and fatigued, but could still kill me with
00:36one panicked movement.
00:43I went back aboard to radio for help.
00:46We were told that perhaps in an hour someone else would arrive, and we all knew that by
00:52then it might be too late.
00:54My boatmage had managed to get some of the net pulled over the side of our ponga.
01:01Their great effort managed to free one of the pectoral fins.
01:07She's got to be able to breathe too.
01:10Oh no, she's right here.
01:13Sensing a spark of freedom, the young whale started to swim, taking us on a Nantucket
01:19sleigh ride through the Sea of Cortez for about a half of a mile.
01:23I'm being taken for a ride by a whale.
01:28The whale eventually tired and came back up right underneath us.
01:31We continued to grab more and more net, and after nearly a half hour, the other pectoral
01:38fin came mostly free.
01:41And when the whale tired, we began cutting the net open with our fluke tail fin.
01:47Come on.
01:48Oh my god, the fluke is upside down now.
01:51Watch out, watch out, watch out.
01:53Hold it, hold it, hold it.
01:55No, no, no, no.
01:57Grab that pipe, grab that pipe.
01:59Finally, after about an hour of exhausting work, we decided we had enough net aboard
02:04to make the final cut.
02:06Cut, cut, cut, cut.
02:09Oh, it's so close.
02:11Did we get her?
02:11Did we get it?
02:12Si.
02:14Yeah!
02:14Yeah!
02:15Yeah!
02:16We did it.
02:16Woo!
02:21She slowly swam away, but about 500 feet from our boat, she breached high into the air.
02:27Free!
02:29Free to live life.
02:32Yeah.
02:38For the next hour, she provided us with an incredible full surface display.
02:43We saw at least 40 breaches, as well as tail logs, tail slabs, and pectoral fin slabs.
02:53Wow.
02:57Mommy, I know what she's doing.
03:00What is she doing, honey?
03:01She's showing us that she's all free.
03:03Yeah.
03:04I think she's showing us a thank you dance.
03:06I think so, Galen.
03:13Yeah.