Video: Alaska fishermen rescue killer whale stuck on rocks

Updated




Video footage has captured the moment three Alaskan fishermen rescued a killer whale who'd become stuck on rocks while seal hunting.

Jason Vonick, 42, was preparing for the start of shrimp fishing season with his partners Nick Segal and John Oakes when they saw a group of killer whales hunting seals in the Klakas inlet.

One of the female orcas became stuck on rocks, so Vonick and his pals anchored their fishing vessel and ooh a 15-foot boat out to the rock to help her, reports ABC News.

Vonick said while the tide was out, all they could do was keep her calm and put water over her.

When the tide cam back in a few hours later, they made the move to help her off the rocks.

Vonick's YouTube video description explains: "In the beginning she was thrashing around in an attempt to get off the rock.

"Later near the end of the video you can hear a few calls she was making to her companions. Then, just at the end of the video, you can see when she started to drown and became very panicked. We had no time to video we just had to act.

"Nick and myself grabbed the oars from the skiff and put them under her pectoral fins and used all our strength to pry her into deeper water (no easy task). There was no struggle from her and she let us do all the work. When she was free she took a deep breath and swam all the way across the bay in about 30 seconds and met up with the other two members of her pod.

"She was a little cut up from the barnacles on the rocks but no serious injuries were seen. I think she left a little wiser on seal catching in shallow rock piles."



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