Although lots of people came across this story several years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle, I only read it for the first time recently, and was really moved. It’s a true story about a humpback whale that was rescued off the coast of San Francisco on the 11th December, 2005. Basically, it said that a female humpback, 50 feet in length and weighing an estimated 50 tons, had become snared in crab pot lines while traversing the usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California
A rescue team was hastily assembled, and it was determined that the imperiled whale was so badly hurt and entangled, the only way to save her was to dive beneath the surface and cut the nylon ropes that were ensnaring her.