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At first, Michael Fishbach and his family thought that the whale was dead. Once it started moving, they knew they had to act fast.

Michael Fishbach and his family are all animal lovers.

In fact, Michael is a co-founder of The Great Whale Conservancy. One winter, the family was on an expedition in The Sea of Cortez to photograph and document rare whales, when they encountered something tragic.

A humpback whale was floating motionless on the water. The family assumed that the whale was dead.

They floated next to it for a few minutes to see if it was still alive. When they were about to head off, they saw the whale exhale.

They realized that there was a slim chance of saving the animal. So Michael dived into the water to see if he could help.

Michael saw that the animal was wrapped in a gill net and couldn’t get out.

The man then made eye contact with the whale. He tried to show the whale that he was going to do all he could to save her.

Even though the animal was trapped, it was still powerful. If Michael wasn’t careful, it could have killed him.

Cautiously, Michael examined the creature more closely.

He saw that the net was dragging the animal’s tail down 15 feet and was pinning its pectoral fins to its body. Its dorsal fin was also tangled.

At first, Michael worked on the dorsal fin. After some trying, he was able to get it free. But without further work, the animal would still die.

The family then radioed for further help. Sadly, the coastguard was vague about being able to assist the animal. The family realized that they were the only realistic hope of saving the whale.

Back on the boat, Michael worked on cutting away at the net on the animal’s pectoral fin.

After an incredible effort, the rope came away, and the animal was a step closer to freedom.

The whale had regained some of its ability to swim now. So the family had to follow the whale for a half a mile.

Once the whale was tired out, the family got back to work on cutting the net away.

Half an hour later, they got the animal’s other pectoral fin free.

Now they had to cut at the net around the tail.

This final task was the hardest part of the rescue. It took the family an hour of pulling in the net and cutting away to get to the point where the animal was almost free.

Eventually, they made the final cut and the net slipped entirely off of the whale’s body. Then something amazing happened.

The whale swam 500 feet away and jumped out of the water, as if saying, “thank you,” to the family.

Michael and his family were all worn out. At points they had thought that it was hopeless. But because of their efforts, the whale was free.

And the whale kept on jumping out of the water near them.

Over the next hour, the whale, which the family named Valentina, followed the boat, frequently breaching the surface. The family counted over 40 different breaches during this time. Clearly, the animal was communicating her appreciation.

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Source: PeopleConnection