'Wherever they are is a cemetery' Environmental group in Colombia battles against discarded nets

After a day of scuba diving, Luis Antonio "Toño" Lloreda was exhausted. Then a friend brought urgent news. "Toño, man, there's a whale caught in a net out there."

- Danielle Khan da Silva

After a day of scuba diving, Luis Antonio "Toño" Lloreda was exhausted. Then a friend brought urgent news. "Toño, man, there's a whale caught in a net out there." Lloreda, 43, had freed other, smaller wildlife from fishing nets, but this would be his first marine animal of such size.

The four- to five-meter-long juvenile humpback, accompanied by its mother, had a net studded with hooks wrapped around its fin and mouth.

"To connect with the whale, I used what we call intuitive interspecies communication," said Lloreda. "I asked the mother for permission - energetically.

"At first, she didn't want our help. But when I showed her we meant no harm, she let us in.

"She positioned herself below us. Then I asked the calf. When the calf became very still, I reached into her mouth and removed the net." The mother and calf swam for 50 meters before pausing to rest.