Fish nets = Endangerment

"He came up to us and like mouthed thank you, it was pretty awesome." Said Dave Anderson, an experienced marine naturalist and the man who after 7 hours of intense net cutting from a boat, freed a huge California Grey Whale off the coast of Dana Point California.

The Grey Whale caught in a gill line.

      March 27, 2012 a whale was spotted hung up in a gill net set out. A gill net is a huge curtain like net 20 feet below the waterline that is weighed down for certain animals to be captured. But everyone knows that our ocean is a huge vast diverse ecosystem and there is much more animals then just one likely to get caught up in a huge net. Once this trapped whale was spotted he was babysat for the night while supplies was gathered for his escape. His name was Bart, and boy oh boy was he transporting organisms along this net. They say that this poor whale seemed to have been dragging the net for about a week and had dozens of sea creatures caught in its wrath. After a long seven hours Bart made a huge dive taking buoys underwater and then was FREE!
     Everyone who was working to help save the whale was rejoiced to save at least one life. Dave Anderson said that thousands of sea creatures die from these nets and he is thankful to save at least one. I can admire this attitude and I wish I could have been there for such an amazing act of kindness in humanity. A lot of people would have seen the whale and perhaps killed it or simply left it floating struggling and caught up in the net.

     Not many whales get this lucky so I am sure Bart showed his appreciation. It was a special day. Unfortunately not for a 30-ton Sperm whale who was not able to survive after being caught in a fishing net in Jask, Iran on November 2, 2012. It is estimated about 150 large whales loose their lives to these nets a year. That is a devastating number with the small about of beautiful whales still around. Gill nets are illegal in some states, I say it is time we make the push to federalize this law and make all fishing nets with out some sort of permit or proof of "restocking" the ocean, should not be aloud. It will soon become  visibly noticeable that these fishing nets are really depleting our oceans. Write your senator, and remember; FISH ARE FRIENDS NOT FOOD.