Fisheries officials have rescued a juvenile humpback whale in waters off Powell River in B.C. after it became entangled in ropes of a prawn fisherman's nets over the weekend. The whale was very lucky to be alive because it was rescued when on the verge of death.

Boaters Allison Wilson and Cliff Klapstein spotted the young humpback on Sunday and immediately shared the news with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

The marine animal was not able to swim freely and was anchored only to one spot. According to Paul Cottrell, a co-coordinator from the B.C. Marine Animal Response Network for the DFO, he has never seen such a complicated case in his life for a whale to be trapped like this one.

“It’s never happened here before. I do disentanglements all over the coast and inside Georgia Strait we’ve had animals entangled but we’ve never been able to get out and successfully grapple on and deal with them”, said Cottrell.

Canadian Coast Guard vessel provided assistance in the rescue of the whale. Cottrell said that the whale had probably spent 24 hours caught up in the prawning gear.

Waterproof cameras were put into use by the team to identify where the bulk of lines were and then started making systematic cuts to ropes to free the animal.

The rescue team had to work from the head to the tail of the animal for nearly four hours to set it free. The whale has suffered injuries because of being tangled, but none of the injuries are life-threatening.