January 25, 2013
When a dolphin needed help off the coast of Hawaii, he swam right up to a scuba instructor and let him know.
Keller Laros was leading a group of divers on a tour off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, last week. "All of a sudden I heard a loud squeak, and I turned around, and the dolphin was literally three feet behind me," Laros said. "He swam right up to me."
The diving instructor could tell that something was wrong, and looking more closely, he saw that there was a fishing line hooked onto his fin.
"I said, ‘come here,’ and he swam right up to me," he said. "I put my hand out and I tried to get the fishing hook out of his left pectoral fin." But the animal was having trouble swimming because his fin was still tangled up in the fishing line. The 10-foot long dolphin - almost twice as long as his rescuer was tall - waited patiently while Laros rummaged through the dive tools that he carries in his suit, pulling out a pair of small scissors.
He was able to clip the line off of the dolphin’s mouth and fin, but there was still a little left. They waited while the dolphin went up for a breath of air and came back down. Then Laros and another dive guide removed as much line from under the fin as they could.
"I guess the dolphin was happy with our work. He swam away and we never saw him again," he said. "It’s a huge thrill to be able to help an animal that clearly knows what’s going on," he said. "He made the effort to come to us… The dolphin is really intelligent. It’s a relationship. He came to us because he had a problem."
One of the divers in the class that Laros was teaching had a video camera and filmed the whole interaction. Here it is for you to see. Isn’t that a magnificent moment between two intelligent mammals?
Video courtesy of Jack’s Diving Locker, Kona, Hawaii
Dolphin Rescue Off Hawaii
Posted by: Seymour Simon
