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Using a 30-foot pole with a curved knife (a “whale cutter”), rescuers from a Zodiac boat waited for the whale to surface for air. When the whale exhaled, the boat moved in.

The whale, estimated to be a 2-year-old male, was not the typical "Sounders" (the group of 12-15 gray whales that forget to migrate and stay in the region all summer). He was a transient migrant. But what caught the researchers’ eyes wasn't the whale's presence; it was the bright orange buoy trailing behind its tail. 2023-Patos-

“The whale didn’t dive,” Morgan later told reporters. “He just... stopped. He floated vertically, head up, for about 30 seconds. He looked at us. And then he took a huge breath and swam away at full speed.” The whale, now officially cataloged as Gray Whale #2333 but known publicly as "Patos," was seen three weeks later near Vancouver Island. The wounds on its tail were healing. By June 2023, a whale watcher photographed Patos near Port Hardy, actively feeding on ghost shrimp. Using a 30-foot pole with a curved knife

“You have three seconds to make the cut before the whale dives again,” said Captain Mike Reddington of the DFO. “If you miss, you might hook the knife into the whale’s flesh. If you panic, you cut the tail off.” On April 27, 2023, at approximately 2:15 PM PDT, in the calm waters just north of Sucia Island, the team succeeded. As the whale rolled to breathe, rescuer Katie Morgan leaned over the bow of the inflatable boat. With a single, decisive sawing motion, she cut the primary loop of rope. He was a transient migrant

The line went slack. The orange buoy floated free.