Divers lauded for rescuing 5 whale sharks stuck in fishing nets: 'Awesome humans'

Scuba divers often get to enjoy the most beautiful views underwater. But there are times when they come face-to-face with the consequences of human lifestyle on aquatic life. That's exactly what happened to a group of divers in Papua New Guinea who came across five whale sharks caught in fishing nets. They were kind enough to rescue these creatures. Emil Rued, one of the divers, posted an Instagram video of how they went underwater and rescued the whales. 

About three divers can be seen pulling the fishing net out from the top of the whales one by one. First, they rescued the first whale which was caught in the fishing net, and then moved on to the next one. They are all wearing proper diving gear and seem determined to get the whales out. The video caption describes what exactly happened, it reads, "A far remote and isolated place in Papua became our spot to anchor for the night. At sunrise, a couple of locals were messing with a large fish net and asked for our help. The language barrier is unimaginably large on these sides, but we understood that something big was caught in the net. Something they were not aware of what it was. To my greatest fright, the net was full of whale sharks."

"Whoever has exposed these nets is my belief as yet that the goal has not been to catch whale sharks. 5 whale sharks were wrapped tightly in the net with no possibility of escaping. We went back and picked up our diving gear. We also managed to get diving knives, which we kept out of sight of the local fishermen (translated using Google Translate)," reads the post. 

He adds that they were in a hurry to rescue the sharks as there were chances of them getting suffocated in the nets. Moreover, when it came to the last rescue, the shark began to sink and they followed it to the bottom thankfully, once they freed it, it was able to swim again. 

The video went viral with more than 37k views and people appreciated the divers for the great work. @mariafsiddiqui commented, "You guys deserve huge applause and immense respect for rescuing all the 5 whale sharks and giving them back their freedom." @luna_curtois said, "Thank you for saving these animals. So hard to watch things like this." @lowcountrylaunch wrote, "Wow! That’s amazing. Way to be awesome humans." @anita_eche_va expressed, "Omg now I can breathe! Thank you guys thank you." @youvegotwanderlust pointed out, "Thank you for sharing and saving them! We all need to be more conscious of our effect on our planet and fellow creatures."

Talking about rescue missions, a man named Michael Jones, who was driving a freight train, saw a pug named Poppy scared by the tracks. He was reaching Langham Crossing on the train when he saw a "flash of red" from Poppy's harness disappear into the bushes near the level crossing. Jones stopped the train and came out of the cabin to take Poppy somewhere safe. The dog was happy to see a friendly face. Jones said, "Without thinking I jumped out of the cab and rushed back as quickly as I could to see if I could find this little dog and there she was just looking so very sad and lonely. She was trembling and looking down at the ground. I just couldn't believe my eyes." 

He fed him crumpets and some water. Meanwhile, the dog's owner Mrs. Bain came searching for him at the Oakhan crossing and asked if anyone had seen Poppy. She was relieved to find the dog after 12 hours of searching.