<div>Thanks Rachel--brought tears to my eyes--we had a similar experience with one of our captains helping to cut a line from a grey whale a number of years ago--he did say the whale lice was bit much though.</div>
<div>Lisa<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:25 AM, Rachel Harris <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:santafina@hotmail.com">santafina@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><b><font face="Verdana" size="5"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 18pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">The Whale Said "Thank You" <br>
</span></font></b><font face="Arial" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <br></span></font><b><font face="Verdana" size="4"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><font size="4">If you read a recent front page story of the SF Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by</font> <font size="4">hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.<br>
</font></span></font></b><font face="Verdana"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><br></span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><font size="4">A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed an environmental group for help.</font> <br>
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="1"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><img height="212" src="cid:X.MA1.1256171467@aol.com" width="324"><br></span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><font size="4">Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. <br>
<br>They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.<br><br>When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles.</font> <br></span></font><font face="Verdana" size="4"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><img height="243" src="cid:X.MA2.1256171467@aol.com" width="483"><br>
</span></font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><font size="4">She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around ~she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.<br>
<br>The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were <br>following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.<br><br>May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.<br>
<br>And , may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.<br><br>I pass this on to you, my friends, in the same spirit</font><span><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="3"> </font></span></span></font></div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Lisa <br><br>Proud Marine Corp Mom<br>LCPL. Nicholas Hale Anderson <br>KIA 11/12/2004<br>"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. <br>Rather we should thank God that such men lived."<br>
-General George S. Patton, Jr.<br>