Tragic: Man rescues whale and is then killed by the whale as it flips over

A Canadian and lobsterman by trade. He'd saved many whales in the past. The whale was entangled in fishing lines.

Joe Howlett succeeded in rescuing the whale, only to be struck by it moments later as it flipped into the water.

Friends told the Canadian Press he had saved some two dozen whales over 15 years.

Mackie Green, a friend of Mr Howlett who had founded the rescue team with him, said: "They got the whale totally disentangled and then some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip."

"Joe definitely would not want us to stop because of this," he added. "This is something he loved and there's no better feeling than getting a whale untangled, and I know how good he was feeling after cutting that whale clear."