Whale of a task to help stranded whale out to sea: Fisherman

PONTIAN: Efforts to pull a four-tonne whale stranded in shallow waters off the Pantai Rambah Recreational Park beach here today to deeper waters took more than three hours.
Recaling the herculean task, fisherman Ismail Sirat said six attempts were made to free the 20m long whale but the confused mammal returned each time to shallow water.
"Our efforts to pull and push the whale began at 2.30pm. We encountered difficulties as the whale kept returning to the shallow waters after we had pulled and pushed it to the deeper end," he said when met at the Sungai Rambah Fishermen's Jetty here today.
Ismail, 47, said he, brother, Hamid, 59, and a friend pulled the whale, using a boat with a 115 horsepower outboard motor, while nine other people, including two firemen pushed the whale.
He said the sea water-level at that time was waist deep and one end of a 15m rope was tied to the whale's tail and the other end, to the boat.
"Eventually at 5.30pm, we managed to pull the whale into the deeper end of the sea off Pontian, one nautical mile from Pantai Rambah," he said. — Bernama