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An 11-year-old girl in Australia has received a lot of praise on social media after a video emerged of her rescuing a trapped shark.
In a video, Billie Rea is seen catching hold of the draughtboard shark, who was stuck in a tidal pool on the edge of Kingston Beach in Tasmania.
Gilbert’s video
“I have got a draughtboard shark. Come on darling,” Rea can be heard responding to her mother in a video, which is now being widely shared on several social media platforms.
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” she says to the shark while carefully holding it, before releasing it into open waters.
Watch the video here:
A 11-year-old girl rescues a trapped draughtboard shark and guides it to sea in Tasmania pic.twitter.com/MY5c3aq0nV
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 24, 2020
“There’s no way I would have seen it. She just had this innate sense that it was there,”
Rea’s mother Abby Gilbert, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“And she just, without letting me know what was happening or doubting herself at all, she just went straight down … it was wedged between these two rocks right in the shallows. It was really low tide,” she added.
Video
Without a second thought, Billie Rea picked up the creature and delicately carried it over rocks towards deeper water. Since being shared online, the video has been viewed over 50,000 times and the young girl has been flooded with praise.
Our kids are so much better than we are. Brava!
— Nancy (@LogicalNancy) November 24, 2020
OMG! I can watch this forever
— Elvira Kalmurzaeva (@Ekalmurzaeva) November 24, 2020
more ppl like this one in the world please
— Cyrus Fahyar (@cyrus_fahyar) November 24, 2020
“As soon as it came into view, I knew what it was and I knew that it couldn’t hurt her,” Abby Gilbert said.
Gilbert said she “was just sitting back in awe really” as the event unfolded.
“We saw it swim off and we stayed with it until we lost sight of it. It was a beautiful moment.”
Representational
According to Reuters, the young girl was never in danger as the draughtboard shark is a slow-moving fish and mostly eats small shellfish. Draughtboard sharks are very common in Tasmanian waters, according to marine experts.
