“We just had a couple sharks circling. Don’t fall, dude!”
While working on a boat off the coast of Nantucket, a group of men spotted something that stopped them in their tracks—someone was dangling from the rigging who definitely wasn’t part of the crew.
A seagull had gotten caught on a hook and was flapping wildly in the wind, helpless and scared. The only way to reach him? Walking out along a narrow, swaying beam with nothing but open water below—a true “walk the plank” moment. But that didn’t stop them.
Without hesitation, one of the men, Alex Earle, took on the daring rescue. Carefully, he made his way across the thin bridge, fully aware of the danger below.
“We just had a couple of sharks circling,” one of the guys said in a video posted to The Dodo. “Don’t fall, dude!”
The bird had flown straight into a stay wire and gotten himself thoroughly tangled. But Earle remained calm and determined, refusing to let the bird suffer.
“It’s awesome you’re doing this for this poor bird,” another crewmember encouraged.
Earle managed to disconnect the wire from the boat, but it was clear the seagull was in bad shape—the hook was lodged deep, right in his nostril.
Back on the boat, Earle and the team worked with steady hands and soft voices. The seagull squirmed and snapped a bit—his way of saying, “Hurry up!”—but he allowed the rescue to continue.
With a little patience and a lot of care, Earle finally freed the bird from the painful hook.
They gave the tired gull a moment to rest and regain his bearings. When he was ready, he flapped his wings and took to the sky once more—free and unharmed.
No one got hurt, no one fell in, and one very lucky bird got a second chance.
“Good deed for the day,” Earle said with a smile.