Watch as a humpback whale tangled in fishing line was freed.
Staff from the NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary found the whale swimming off the Maui coast before leaping into action.
The quick-thinking marine life experts struggled to remove the wire from around one of the whales flippers — something they described as “potentially life-threatening.”
Entanglements with fishing gear, such as mooring lines and nets, are a constant hazard to marine animals.
Numbers of whales lose their lives after becoming entangled and being unable to free themselves.
Off this part of Hawaii, sanctuary staff have counted eight whales with entanglements since mid-December.
The team determined the fishing gear the whale was entangled with came from its feeding grounds in Alaska.
