A wild bottlenose dolphin named Notch made an extraordinary decision when he swam directly up to a group of divers in the waters off Kona, Hawaii, and patiently waited for them to understand his desperate plea for help. Diver Keller Laros, who has completed over 10,000 dives in his career, immediately knew something was wrong when the nine foot long dolphin kept circling close and refused to swim away from the group. When Notch positioned himself directly in front of Laros and rolled over, the diver spotted a a fishing hook that was embedded in the dolphin’s left pectoral fin with fishing line wrapped around it tightly. Laros gestured with his hand and said come here, and incredibly the dolphin swam right up to him, floating just inches away while the diver carefully removed the hook and began cutting away the tangled fishing line with small scissors from his dive suit.
The rescue took about four minutes, which must have felt like an eternity for the highly intelligent marine mammal, yet Notch demonstrated remarkable patience throughout the entire process. What amazed everyone most was that after Laros freed the pectoral fin and Notch surfaced for a desperately needed breath, the grateful dolphin actually returned to the divers and allowed them to continue working to remove more line before finally swimming off into the dark ocean. The incredible rescue was captured on video by diver Martina Wing and has been viewed millions of times online, with viewers marveling at the dolphin’s intelligence in recognizing that humans could help him and his patience in trusting strangers to solve his life threatening problem. Even seasoned marine researchers commented that this behavior was highly unusual and demonstrated not only the remarkable intelligence of dolphins but also the profound trust that Notch placed in the group of divers who were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
Source: https://www.thedodo.com/daily-dodo/diver-befriends-dolphin-then-sees-something-tucked-under-his-fin
