Scuba diver rescues juvenile stingray caught in discarded fishing hook

A scuba diver rescued a stingray which had a discarded fishing hook caught in its mouth.

Raffa Wake-Valais Sarbach, 37, was swimming off Bayahibe, Dominican Republic on 7 January when he and his partner spotted a ghost fishing line with three dead fish attached.

They then noticed a juvenile stingray caught in the line and realised the hook had snared the fish’s mouth.

The diver carefully turned the stingray over and painstakingly pulled the hook out of its mouth without causing any injury.

“It took me a good five minutes to remove the hook. Apart from slight injuries to the mouth, the stingray seemed fine,” he said.

“If I hadn’t managed to remove it, the hook could have caused the stingray to die.”