Rescuers struggle to free sperm whale trapped in netting off Sicily

The Italian coastguard is struggling to free a sperm whale caught up in illegal fishing netting off the coast of one of Sicily’s Aeolian islands.

A team of divers and biologists have been working for more than 48 hours to help the whale close to the island of Salina. The whale’s huge size and agitated state has made the operation more challenging.

“The whale seems to have gone crazy,” Carmelo Isgrò, a biologist and diver, told the Italian news agency Ansa on Monday. “We thought that after 24 hours he would get tired, but instead it is not making our job easy.”

Isgrò added that the job was “very risky” as the female whale “does not stop wiggling” due to injuries and netting that “continues to tear at its skin”.

Read on via The Guardian