You may know a viral video on Youtube, Seadoors whale shark rescue , then here is the story.

May 2016, during a diving liveaboard with seadoors in Tubbataha Reefs, on the dive site Black Rock, the group of divers saw something big at the surface. Diving at 30m, it was difficult to identify what it could be. We started to go up and have a closer look. But closer we were getting, more difficult it was to understand what we were seeing.

It was during the third dive of the day, the light was going down. We saw a “ghost swimming at the surface ” !

Once we’ve almost reached the surface, we have understood that was a Whale Shark trapped into a “ghost net”. The whale shark was juvenile, around 3 to 4 meters long only. The shark was literally growing into the net for long time. The net ropes went deep in its skin, by cutting it on top of his head and its pectoral fins. This was difficult to watch.

Jonathan managed to borrow the knife of one diver. He started cutting the net full of barnacles. He has been able to free the shark easily. The shark was staying static helping him to cut the net !

After the dive, the Whale Shark came back around Seadoors Liveaboard to say thank you and have swim with all of us during another hour. Everybody on board this adventure will remember this day; the day we’ve rescued a Whale Shark !