[Vision2020] A Human Interest Story from Joke-of-the-Day

[Tom Hansen]

In the San Francisco Chronicle, December 2005, you would have read about a
female humpback whale who had become entangled in a web of crab traps and
lines. The fifty-foot whale 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 tail, her torso and a line tugging in her
mouth. 

A fisherman spotted her just east of a local island chain and called 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 - a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail
could kill a rescuer. 

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 thanked them. Some said it was the most
incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out
of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will
never be the same.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps." 

-Emo Philips