Whale Tale: Sweet!

One of those heartwarming emails that gets forwarded landed in my inbox today (thanks, Robert) about a whale that was stuck in traps but eventually freed. The story, cut and pasted from the email:

"If you read a SF Chronicle front page story, you would've read about a female humpback whale who 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. She also had hundreds of yards of line-rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, and a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad-off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her.

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

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

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love, be as fortunate to be surrounded by people who'll help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.

And may you always know the joy of giving and receiving.

I pass this on to you in the same spirit."