A manta ray lives to see another day thanks to diving instructor Paul Slater's quick thinking to free the sea creature from a public fishing line off Costa Rica's Pacific Coast adjacent to the country's Cocos Island, mantaray.littlethings.com reported.
"I was shooting GoPro video at the time and the dive master and I approached the animal from behind, deciding originally to cut the trailing line some 20 ft. behind the animal," Slater told the website. "We made a first cut of the line around the body, but he was pretty spooked and swam off."
Luckily, the manta ray got the clue that Slater and another gentleman, Don Shellhammer, had come to assist the endangered sea animal.
"I believe he then realized we were there to help and it circled back around, we came back to him and proceeded to cut the remaining line from him and free him," Slater told mantaray.littlethings.com. "After it was released, the manta then proceeded to stick around and do barrel roles for lots of photo ops - which we are convinced was in appreciation of our efforts."
A diver also rescued a manta ray from a fishing line by Costa Rica's Bat Islands in September, according to the Huffington Post.
