Man saves whale tangled in fishing nets

A whale tangled in fishing lines was rescued in the waters of Scapa Flow off Orkney after a boat operator heroically dived in to cut it free.

It happened during a boat trip on Friday and the whale was filmed by David Woodcock, whose family had won an auction prize.

Mr Woodcock of Burray on Orkney said Orkan Adventure’s Magnus Spence initially went into the water with his snorkel and the whale appeared to be tangled in creel lines.

He donned his scuba gear and cut the ropes, freeing the whale.

Mr Woodcock said:’’We won a trip from Orkan Adventures in last year’s Children in Need auction on Radio Orkney and decided to take it as my cousin and her husband had come up for a visit.

“The trip was great and we went to Lyness for lunch before heading back.

“On the return trip Magnus saw a basking shark and managed to get right up close to it. I thought that this was a really good start to my visitors’ first trip to Orkney.

“Within a few minutes however, Magnus spotted a whale. When we got close to it, it became apparent that it was in some sort of distress and Magnus dived in with his snorkel to see what the problem was. Having decided that it had become tangled in old creel lines, Magnus returned, donned his scuba gear and went down to try and help.

“This may have been rather foolhardy as we were not sure what kind of beastie it was at this time.

“He managed to cut the ropes free and released the whale which then shot off without even the good grace to come closer for another good photo opportunity.

“What do we do for the rest of our visitors’ holiday to avoid it being a downhill slope after this?’’