Pleasure divers came to the rescue of a 15-foot whale which was tangled up in rope off the shores of Bermuda on Saturday.

Mark Blomfield was in the Ginger Pepper five miles off St. David's with pals Russell Whayman and Simon Earnshaw when they saw a fin and went to investigate.

When they got to the spot they found a buoy and felt disappointed but got excited again when it suddenly took off with a long length of rope attached to a five tonne whale.

The boat followed slowly while Mr. Blomfield hurriedly put on his diving gear.

“It all happened very, very fast when I was in the water. It was minutes from seeing it to freeing it. The rope was 50 to 60 feet long and covered with barnacles.

“I pulled myself along the rope.”

As he nervously approached the mouth of the whale he saw the rope had wrapped itself round the mouth of the whale like a bridle bit on a horse.

“I was a bit concerned if the whale flipped its tail it could have killed me.

“I was only scared when I went along the rope. When I touched it, it calmed down. It seemed to sense we were trying to help it.

“I was level with the head and able to cut it one side. Luckily one cut did the trick and it came away.

“I thought I might have heard whale noise but it was totally quiet.”

However, he remembered a TV programme which said whales go into a silent mode when injured or in distress in order not to attract sharks.

He noticed some blood and damage to the whale's blubber from where the half-inch thick rope had cut in.

Mr. Blomfield, who has been diving for 28 years, said it was the first time he had seen a whale, let alone come to its rescue.

He believes it is a minke whale because of its long slender snout. The largest thing he has seen before was a 20-foot whale shark, which he says is the ocean's largest fish, 24 miles offshore at Argus Tower.

“We swam with it for 20 minutes. You normally have to go to Micronesia for things like that.”

Conservation Services director Jack Ward congratulated the whale's rescuers for doing a wonderful thing but he said marine life getting caught in rope and plastic was all too common and he urged boaters to remove floating debris when they saw it.

Mr. Blomfield (pictured) said: “A long time ago rope was more biodegradable. Organisms would get things on them but they would break down and they would get free much quicker than they do now.”

He recalled working with a team to free a 30-foot hump back whale which was tangled in a fish pot buoy line inshore at Warwick Long Bay more than two years ago.

That time the whale was in distress and kept evading approaching divers as darkness closed in.

“It was readily spooked. It can be a pretty dangerous when you approach it. It that particular instances Billy Mitchell got in and got it free. He's a pretty assertive fellow and it didn't take him too long.”

He said it possibly saved the whale's life as it was vulnerable to stress and marauding sharks but he said a manta ray similarly tethered six miles of the south west of Bermuda was less fortunate as the sharks were circling and it was too dangerous to intervene.

“I am quite positive that didn't have a happy ending.”

He urged divers who see marine life tangled in debris to approach with caution.