A diver painstakingly worked to remove a stray fishing hook from the mouth of a frightened stingray.
Good Samaritan Raffa Wake-Valais Sarbach was enjoying the clear waters off the Dominican Republic this month when he and his partner spotted the ghost fishing line.
They saw three fish had already died attached to hooks along the 20-meter line—but, then noticed a juvenile stingray was caught on one end, a hook stuck in its mouth.
After carefully turning over the ray, the 37-year-old divemaster worked for almost five minutes to dislodge the hook in the animal’s mouth without causing injury.
Watching it finally swim away was a great moment.
“Fortunately I think we were lucky and that it wasn’t hooked for too long, likely less than an hour,” said Raffa, from Switzerland.
“It took me a good five minutes to remove the hook. Apart from slight injuries to the mouth, the stingray seemed fine.
“If I hadn’t managed to remove it, the hook could have caused the stingray to die. It could have had trouble eating and been unable to swim away.”
“The line had two fishes still alive before we got to the stingray—and we freed them too.”
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Watch the timely rescue below…
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