Thanks to Earl for forwarding this

Stricken dolphin who 'asked' Hawaii diver for help: Moment mammal stuck on fishing line pushed itself into scuba instructor and waited patiently to be freed

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:21:01 EST, 22 January 2013| UPDATED:03:16 EST, 23 January 2013

A dolphin tangled in fishing line sought help from a diver in the waters of Hawaii.

The amazing encounter on January 11 was captured on video and the diver, Keller Laros, spent the better part of eight minutes tending to the needy mammal who readily accepted the help.

Mr Laros was leading a group of snorkelers for a manta ray dive experience off the Big Island's Kona International Airport when the dolphin squealed out.

The diver explained, 'The way he came right up and pushed himself into me there was no question this dolphin was there for help.'

Pain: The dolphin was entangled in fishing line and a hook was lodged in its pectoral fin

The group were enjoying the aquatic sights when suddenly they heard a dolphin cry and the bottlenose dolphin swam in their direction.

Mr Laros told KITV how he soon noticed that the dolphin's movements were inhibited because it was entangled in fishing line and a hook was lodged in its pectoral fin.

'I was trying to unwrap it, I got the line fishing hook out of the pectoral fin. There was a line coming out of his mouth. But, the line wrapped around his pectoral fin was so tight and he had cuts both front and aft,' said Laros.

'I was worried if I tugged on it, it might hurt him more. I was able to cut the fishing line and unwrap it.'

Cry for help: The diver said that the way the dolphin approached him, 'there was no question this dolphin was there for help'

Free: The diver removed the fishing hook and clipped the line that was near the mouth but the dolphin swam away before he could remove the entire fishing line

The diver said that the animal patiently and calmly allowed him to work to remove the fishing line.

'I've had bottlenose dolphins approach me a lot of times and they are really smart animals,' Laros, Laros, a professional scuba instructor and Manta Ray researcher, explained.

Mr Laros did remove the fishing hook and clipped the line that was near the mouth but as other divers joined Laros and tried to remove more fishing line, the mammal swam off and did not return

Three of us dove Pepper's Ferry on Sunday.  We had hoped for more but the weather looked nasty.  Fortunately it wasn't as bad as it looked.

We found that visibility was not great shallow but got better as we went down.  With the overcast skies it was dark at depth but we had better than 6 feet in my light beam.   I'm not sure exactly how far because we had to keep an eye out for obstructions.  But even at the extent of my light objects were clear and well lit.  Plus I was using some really old back-up lights.

The temperature was 57 degrees.  That made it still a little chilly but not bad with a hood and gloves.  We had two in drysuits and one in an Aquaflex wetsuit.  No one reported getting cold.

The current was brisk to say the least.  Had to hold on quite a bit as we moved over the rocks.  Tucked in out of direct current was not bad but you definitely needed to be able to grab on when in the current.

Fish life was there but I think we missed a lot looking for handholds.  Had a few smallmouth swim by and a really big catfish took off when I got close to it.  We also had a smaller catfish follow us for a while.  Probably wondering what we were doing in his home.

Virginia Tech unveiled a jellyfish-like robot htat may one day be used to patrol the oceans.

Check it out here