Whale sharks are often hunted for their meat, liver oils, fins, gills, and skins. As a magnificent creature, they also sometimes find themselves trapped in the fishing net set up by fishermen targeting small schools of fish such as tuna.
A video posted on Facebook by Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia (DOF) shows a whale shark sticks in a fishing net and can’t get rid of it.
In the video, we can see a fisherman swimming towards the trapped sea creature. He then, gently coaxing it out of the net by pushing the net downwards. He tried to pull the whale shark out of the nets. his friends can be seen on the board giving instructions to him to remove the net from the fish.
After a few tries, the whale shark finally gets out from the net and it swims away.
“Operation release whale shark trapped in a fishermen’s net in the waters of Kuala Kedah. Well done and thank you to the fishermen involved in protecting the country’s fishing resources!” said the Department of Fisheries in the video’s caption.