Underwater photographers and free divers recently rescued a mobula ray tangled in a rope while being circled by sharks.
After swimming away, the injured ray unexpectedly returned, circling the divers in what they described as a “thank you” moment.
The mobula ray was trapped more than 30 feet below the surface, completely wrapped in rope from a shark fisherman’s buoy.
Mobulae, also known as flying rays, devil rays, or eagle rays, are smaller than their cousins the giant manta rays, and also far more diverse, with around 12 different extant species and several extinct ones.
Working in shifts, the team carefully cut away the line and freed the distressed animal while documenting the entire rescue off Baja California, Mexico.
Underwater photographer Andre Smits was part of the ocean safari group who spotted the ray and helped with the rescue.
“We went to one of the shark fishermen’s buoys because we didn’t find any wildlife to interact with that day,” Smits told England’s Southwest News Service. “Our guide jumped in to check the line, popped his head up right away, and said, ‘guys, I need your help. There’s something stuck in the line.'”
The rescue required careful coordination among seven divers, not helped by the three, 8-foot-long silky sharks circling the action not far from them.
A free-diving trainer that was part of the group descended to cut the rope below the ray, allowing the team to pull the animal closer to the surface.
“It was completely entangled. The rope was going around almost every part of the ray,” Smits, based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, said. “The animal was in freak mode, starting to swim around to try to get free, but then it understood that it was stuck.”
The team worked together to hold the distressed ray while carefully cutting away the entangling rope with knives, a key piece in every diver’s toolkit.
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Smits explained that the buoy line, being artificial material, could be like a knife in its own right if one of their team was holding too tightly at the moment the animal tried to flee. With the sharks in their periphery, blood in the water was the last thing any of them wanted, which meant that their rescue efforts had to take place extremely carefully.
The ray was injured but survived.
“The beautiful thing was we cut her free, we released her, and she swam away about 30 meters and then it felt like she decided to come back,” Smits said.
“She really swam back to us and did a ‘thank you’ circle. She came right between us to our faces, almost giving us a grateful hug.”
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