Beluga Whale Carries Struggling Diver to Surface
A DROWNING diver has a beluga whale to thank for helping to save her life after her legs were paralysed by cramps.
Yang Yun was taking part in
a free-diving contest at Polar Land in Harbin, north-east China, in which
participants were required to sink seven metres to the bottom of a pool and stay
there for as long as possible without the aid of breathing equipment.
Ms Yun, 26, thought she was going to die amid the beluga whales she shared the
arctic pool with, after struggling to move her legs while trying to kick her way
to the surface.
"I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me - I was
dead,”
she told The Sun.
“Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface."
That “incredible force” was Mila, a beluga whale which had noticed her distress
and clamped its jaws around her leg.
Using her sensitive nose, Mila drove Ms Yun carefully to the surface, to the
amazement of onlookers and an underwater photographer who captured the entire
incident on film.
"Mila noticed the problem before we did,” an organiser told The Sun.
"She's a sensitive animal who works closely with humans and I think this girl
owes her her life."
Herald Sun
July 30, 2009