Video footage shared by Nicholas Lewis on Facebook showed his friend, Mark Cain, helping a blind seal after it had gotten tangled up in fishing line next to some boats on the harbor.
https://www.facebook.com/100037937640113/videos/pcb.334565381151381/334564854484767
Since the seal was well-known to Mark and Nicholas, who often fed it after it lost its sight, the guys recognized the animal struggling in the water and decided to help it.
Mark laid down on his belly on the boat and splashed the water to try to get the seal to swim to him as close as possible. After making several attempts to get his hands on the line, he still wasn’t able to reach and remove it from the seal’s body.
https://www.facebook.com/100037937640113/videos/pcb.334565381151381/334564627818123
Mark then developed a strategy of knocking on the boat to guide the blind seal by noise in hopes the seal would listen to where it should swim. It worked! Finally, the seal swam close enough to Mark and he took the fishing line off, setting the seal free.
Before heading back out to sea, the seal looked back at the fisherman as if he was thanking him. Mark received a lot of positive comments on social media after the video was shared. Several people acknowledged his courage and congratulated him for being the seal’s savior.
“Well done Mark! You have ‘sealed’ my belief, that you really are a lovely, kind young man!” Janet Corran wrote about Mark on Facebook.