Video: Dramatic rescue as baby humpback whale stranded on shoal in Mexico

A dramatic rescue of a baby humpback whale that became stranded on a shoal in Baja California, Mexico, took place this week.

The animal had become stranded just beyond El Coromuel beach during low tide, and is thought to have entered La Paz Bay from the Sea of Cortez.

According to Octavo Dia, swimmers and tourists at the Coromuel water park saw the 30ft whale struggling, and notified the Marina and Profepa, a Mexican environmental agency.

Caring citizens and a number of boats took part in the rescue, which saw the beautiful animal pulled free with the use of ropes.

Octavia Dia reported: ""The effort followed the protocol for marine mammal rescue. The struggle to save the whale lasted over two hours, but the successful results incited elated uproar in the concerned witnesses."

The Spanish-language video above shows parts of the rescue, but, according to Grind TV,
biologist Francisco Gomez says that humpback whales are migrating north to Alaskan waters and that younger whales, particularly sick ones, will sometimes swim to closely to shore and become stranded.

Jonathan Roldan, who runs the Tailhunter International sport fishing business, wrote about the incident on his Facebook page, saying: "Hope you got to see this yesterday. It was incredible. About 30 pangas and launches out there trying to help this stranded whale right off the beach on one of the shoals. Folks were lined up in the streets with cameras and binoculars."

The whale has not been seen since, but it is believed to have made it safely back into the Sea of Cortez.

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