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IT WAS a moment explorer Brian Skerry will always remember... saving the life of a whale caught in a fishing net.
Then in his early 20s, Brian had just come up from exploring a shipwreck off Cape Cod Bay in the US when a lobster fisherman asked for help.
“I could have been killed, but like an idiot I just jumped back into the water with a knife in my hand,” recalls Brian.
“I then spent about an hour or two cutting that whale out. I remember, as I cut that last piece of line, that young humpback whale looked at me with its big eye, then just rested for a few moments and swam away.
“I was hooked. There’s something very special about being in the water with whales.”
This incredible experience sparked a lifetime interest in the creatures for Brian, now 59, who had grown up in a small town in Massachusetts and “always dreamed of exploring the ocean”.
“Dreams do come true,” says Brian,
by NATASHA WYNARCZYK who now works as a National Geographic photographer specialising in marine wildlife.
“I’m very lucky to do what I do – every trip and assignment you go on, you come back having learned something new about the natural world.
“It’s allowed me to travel all over the world and come close to amazing creatures. I never take my job for granted.”
After doing a cover story for National Geographic in 2015 on dolphin intelligence, Brian decided he wanted to work more with whales and dolphins.
And now his dream is being realised, as he’s one of the stars in new documentary series Secrets Of The Whales.
Produced by Titanic director James Cameron and narrated by Alien actress Sigourney Weaver, the series is a fourpart epic that takes viewers into the secretive world of five different whale eve
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