Divers Spot Wounded Manta Ray ‘Asking’ for Help–Then They See Fishhooks and Rush to the Rescue

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All too often, creatures of the sea are found tormented by the detritus of human industry. In the waters of southwest Australia’s Ningaloo Reef, a gentle giant found itself in distress; fortunately, a conscientious human crossed paths with it just in the nick of time.

Jake Wilton, an underwater photographer from Ningaloo Marine Interactions, was diving with British marine biologist Monty Halls in July of 2019. Suddenly, the pair noticed they were being shadowed by the humongous sea creature.

The manta ray was one that Wilton had seen before. Dubbed “Freckles” by the locals for its distinctive belly pattern, Wilton looked closer at the ray and realized that he and Halls were being pursued for a reason; Freckles was in distress and “asking” for help.

Halls caught the ensuing interaction on camera. He later called it “one of the best things I’ve ever seen underwater” in a clip of the aftermath, which he shared on Facebook.

The moving footage shows the 30-year-old manta ray approaching Wilton, as if pleading for help to remove fish hooks that had become embedded in its right eye. She appeared to know and trust the diver, and Wilton immediately understood what he had to do.

“I’m often guiding snorkelers in the area,” Wilton shared with People, “and it’s as if she recognized me and was trusting me to help her. She got closer and closer, and then started unfurling to present the eye to me. I knew we had to get the hooks out of her eye or she would have been in big trouble.”

Wilton’s instincts were correct. Foreign objects that puncture the skin of marine creatures can cause fatal infections. If Freckles hadn’t found Wilton that day and if the fish hooks had moved, she could have been at significant risk of blindness.

Wilton worked diligently; Halls said the manta ray remained perfectly still throughout the procedure. “I went down for one last try,” Wilton regaled, “and the manta stayed completely still in the water.”

After finishing his rescue mission, successfully withdrawing the hooks, Wilton swam triumphantly to the surface of the water. Freckles, freed from the devastating grip of the fish hooks, gracefully swam away.

“That manta absolutely understood what was going on,” Halls exclaimed, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “Jake went down again and again and she just remained still for him. I’m sure that manta knew that Jake was trying to get the hooks out.”

While large manta rays may look threatening, they do not have an external spike like stingrays do and are completely harmless to humans. In fact, they have the largest brains of any fish and are renowned for their intelligence.

While Freckles and Wilton’s heartwarming interaction is something to be celebrated, there’s a darker reality lurking beneath the surface. Countless marine animals are harmed as a result of the debris left behind by humans every single year, and few of them are saved the way Freckles was.

Initiatives such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program, which includes a user-friendly tracker app, “allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways,” they say.

It’s a step in the right direction for protecting innocent marine creatures like Freckles.

Wilton has since checked in on Freckles. The diver told BBC News that she’s doing well. “She stopped and hung around for about 30 seconds above me; it was pretty wild,” he said. “They have self-awareness and can recognize individual manta rays ...”