TORONTO -- Italian coast guard divers recorded video of their efforts to free a sperm whale entangled in a fishing net off the coast of the Aeolian Islands.
The whale was first spotted by onlookers on Saturday, the Italian Coast Guard said in Facebook post.
The video shared on social media shows divers chopping at a large pink net entangled around the whale.
Various patrols and biologists worked to free the whale, according to the Italian Coast Guard.
“The activity is made particularly difficult by the size of the specimen and its state of agitation, which does not allow continuous assistance to be provided in safety,” the Coast Guard wrote in a Facebook post, translated from Italian.
This is the second time within the span of a few weeks that a whale was found to be caught in a fishing net in the area. The Italian Coast Guard and biologists were called to the same waters three weeks ago, after a sperm whale was similarly caught in a net and eventually freed.
The Italian Coast Guard said it has seen an increase this year in illegal fishing of sperm whales.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, most whale species are facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. More than 1,000 whales are killed each year due to commercial whale hunts.
Since January, more than 100 kilometres of fishing nets have been confiscated by Italian authorities.
