In 2005, just off the coast of San Francisco near the Farallon Islands, a fisherman spotted something heartbreaking—a massive humpback whale completely entangled in commercial fishing gear. She was trapped in dozens of crab lines, her movement restricted, her body weighed down, her breathing labored.
He radioed for help.
Within hours, a rescue team from the Marine Mammal Center arrived. After assessing the situation, they made a daring decision: divers would enter the water and try to cut the whale free—knowing that one slap of her tail could be deadly.
For hours, they worked in cold waters, using curved knives to carefully slice away ropes from her mouth, fins, and tail. The danger was real, but so was their determination.
When the final line fell away, the whale didn’t bolt.
Instead, she began to swim in slow, graceful circles—almost like a dance. Then, one by one, she approached each diver, gently nudging them. The divers later said it felt like she was thanking them—quietly, powerfully, without a single word.
One diver remembered her eye following his every move as he cut the rope from her mouth. “I’ll never forget that look,” he said. “It changed me.”
She swam free that day.
And maybe we can all carry something from that moment:
To help each other when tangled.
To swim in gratitude.
And to never underestimate the depth of connection between living beings.
Credit: Diem Jones
