Watch: Kind fishermen free baby whale shark from rope trap

An endangered whale shark calf with a rope wrapped around its body kept approaching a small fishing boat for help to be freed from its precarious plight.

The local fishermen, in the seas near Indonesia, initially ignored the whale shark calf, knowing that hunting of the species is banned all over the world. But after the fishermen spotted him in the water, the whale shark calf refused to be ignored until it got help. 

The calf kept swimming right up close next to the boat, again and again. 

When the fisherman finally stopped the boat to take a closer look at the whale shark calf they realised that the baby desperately needed their help to be freed from the rope. The rope was wrapped around its fins, seriously restricting its movement and preventing it from going down to the bottom of the deep ocean.

Watch the video and see how the baby whale shark asked the fishermen so sweetly for help, and then splashed off in delight to say thank you, once he had been set free. The fishermen used a hook to delicately move the rope into a position that would enable them to finally cut the rope with a large knife without injuring the fish.

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Whale sharks are slow moving, filter feeding sharks and the largest known fish species.

According to the World Wildlife Fund they are highly valued on international markets. Demand for their meat, fins and oil remains a threat to the species, particularly by unregulated fisheries.

“Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the largest shark, and indeed largest of any fishes alive today. They feed on plankton and travel large distances to find enough food to sustain their huge size, and to reproduce. Whale sharks are found in all the tropical oceans of the world. Their white spotted colouration makes these gentle giants easy to distinguish, and popular with snorkelers and divers at sites where they aggregate off the coast.”

According to WWF the maximum size of whale sharks is not known, but could be as large as 20m. 

“Females give birth to live young but this has never been observed. Where pupping occurs and where the youngest animals situate remains a mystery, as they are very rarely found. Adults are often found feeding at the surface, but may dive to 1000m. Whale sharks are protected from fishing in many countries these days, but are in decline in some areas.”