Fishing crew let whale shark escape from their net

Samart Munbut, the fishing boat's captain, ordered his crew to open the net to release the whale shark. It took around five minutes before the whale shark managed to escape from the fishermen's net.

"It was the first whale shark that we helped this year," he said. "Initially, we assumed that it had got lost with its mother while chasing a group of small fish."

He said he had saved many whale sharks so far, adding that sometimes he had to cut the fishing net to free them.