Whale Saves Drowning Diver

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2009 5:35 AM CDT
Whale Saves Drowning Diver
A 4-year-old Chinese boy swims with a 5-year-old beluga whale named Xiao Qiang at an aquarium in China's eastern Shandong Province.   (AP Photo/EyePress/File)

A beluga whale came to the rescue of a woman who got into trouble during a free-diving contest at a Chinese aquarium, the Telegraph reports. The woman, who wasn't wearing breathing equipment, suffered cramps near the bottom of the aquarium's Arctic pool and found herself unable to rise. The whale, sensing she was in trouble, took her leg and guided her to the surface.

"I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me—I was dead," the diver says. "Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface." (More marine mammals stories.)

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