Meet Ivan Iskenderian, the 20 year old fisherman from Australia who saved a whale from choking on a plastic bag.

Ivan was out of a fishing boat when the whale swam up along side and nudged the hull.

The massive mammal was obviously distressed, Ivan noticed that he whale had a plastic bag, tangled up with some old fishing line, stuck in its mouth and partially covering its head and airway.

Leaning out of the boat, the Aussie grabbed the bag and freed his new friend. The whale then stuck around, playing around in the water near his rescuer.

The story is kind of reminiscent of the one school children are told about the chap pulling a thorn from the foot of a lion, and then facing the lion in combat later in life, only for the king of the jungle to remember the thorn thing, and leave him alone.

So, logically speaking, when Ivan is around 40, he’ll go on Gladiators Australia where he’ll be armed with a giant cotton bud and asked to dual with a whale, who will mysteriously take a dive and let Ivan go on to victory.

The moral of this story? Whales love cotton buds, but have no sense of fair play on televised contests.

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