a Whale of a story

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SF Gate

<http://www.sfgate.com

Daring

rescue of whale off Farallones

Humpback

nuzzled her saviors in thanks after they untangled her from

crab

lines, diver says </cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=

Peter

Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

<pfimrite

Wednesday,

December 14, 2005

A

humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the

Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts

said was a rare and remarkable encounter.

" It

felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had

helped it, " James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. " It

stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some

fun. "

Sunday's

daring rescue was the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an

entangled humpback, said Shelbi Stoudt, stranding manager for the Marine Mammal

Center in Marin County.

The 45-

to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks'

usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California

when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.

It was

spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the

Farallones, about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.

Mick

Menigoz of Novato, who organizes whale watching and shark diving expeditions on

his boat the New Superfish, got a call for help Sunday morning, alerted the

Marine Mammal Center and gathered a team of divers.

By 2:30

p.m., the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team

members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into

the water and cut the ropes.

It was

a very risky maneuver, Stoudt said, because the mere flip of a humpback's

massive tail can kill a man.

" I

was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines

wrapped around it, " said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who

works with " Great White Adventures, " a cage-diving outfit that

contracts with Menigoz. " I really didn't think we were going to be able to

save it. "

Moskito

said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60

feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times

around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in

the whale's mouth.

The

crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging

into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.

At

least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers

said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to

struggle mightily to keep its blow- hole out of the water.

Moskito

and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special

curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said,

giving off a strange kind of vibration.

" When

I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at

me, watching me, " Moskito said. " It was an epic moment of my

life. "

When

the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according

to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam

to the next one.

" It

seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you,'' Moskito

said. " I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable

experience. "

Humpback

whales are known for their complex vocalizations that sound like singing and

for their acrobatic breaching, an apparently playful activity in which they

lift almost their entire bodies out of the water and splash down.

Before

1900, an estimated 15,000 humpbacks lived in the North Pacific, but the

population was severely reduced by commercial whaling. In the 20th century,

their numbers dwindled to fewer than 1,000. An international ban on commercial

whaling was instituted in 1964, but humpbacks are still endangered. Between

5,000 and 7,500 humpbacks are left in the world's oceans, and many of those survivors

migrate through the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

/E-mail Peter Fimrite at

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Radiating UNCONDITIONAL LOVE & Truth to all.

May I always be found worthy.

Hawk

In Gratitude for All of Us!

Look at everything as

though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on

earth will be filled with joy & glory.