The Campobello Island Whale Rescue team disentangles whales caught in fishermen's gear and nets around the Bay of Fundy off the east coast of Canada.
To free a trapped whale, you have to tire it out. When writhing around in the water, they can be impossible to cut loose, so volunteer Mackie Greene ties polyurethane balloons to the fishing nets wrapped around their fins.
These make it harder for the giant mammals to dive back beneath the surface, and allow his team to start severing the ropes.
In the early 1990s, Greene had wanted to become a fisherman, but years of overfishing in the Bay of Fundy had left cod stocks heavily depleted.
"I still wanted to be on the water though," he says, "so I started a little whale watching business back in 1995."
The bay is a rich feeding ground for a variety of sea life, attracted to the coast in search of food. The densely populated waters are a similar draw for fishermen, whose nets can prove fatal for the whales.
Greene got to know a team of marine scientists stationed in the bay, and when a whale became wrapped up in a fishing net he helped them untangle the cords and set it free. "I helped them out and I fell in love with it," he says.
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