Guernsey Press

Whale caught in fishing nets freed off Poland’s Baltic coast

It took about an hour for rescuers to cut and remove the nets and allow the whale to swim into the open sea.

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Teams of sea rescuers and wildlife experts successfully freed a whale that got caught in fishing nets near a popular Baltic Sea resort in Poland.

It took about an hour for the rescuers to cut and remove the nets and allow the whale to swim into the open sea, close to the popular summer resort and beach in Miedzyzdroje, where the stranded animal was spotted on Wednesday morning.

Poland Whale Rescue
Sea rescuers and wildlife activists in dinghies approach a whale to cut it loose from fishing nets off the Baltic Sea beach near Miedzyzdroje, Poland (AP)

“You have to approach these animals with a lot of respect and we knew that if it chose to wave its tail, we would all find ourselves in the water,” Mr Wrzecionkowski told The Associated Press.

Poland Whale Rescue
A whale that got caught in fishing nets stays close to the water surface in the Baltic Sea (AP)

He said the boat he was in was some three meters (10 feet) long and the animal was at least twice as long.

Poland Whale Rescue
Sea rescuers watch a whale that got caught in fishing nets as they prepare to assist in cutting it loose off the coast of Poland (AP)

Whales normally live in the open waters of oceans, but sometimes individual animals swim from the Atlantic Ocean into the Baltic Sea through the Danish Straits.

The rescuers hope the whale will find its way back to the Atlantic because the Baltic is not a suitable environment for whales.

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