Pictures show volunteers rescuing humpback whale off coast of Orkney

Incredible images show how volunteers rescued an exhausted humpback whale being dragged to the seabed by a lobster pot.

The 12m long adult was left fighting for its life after it got its tail caught on fishing gear off Orkney in Scotland.

The majestic mammal had spent at days - potentially up to a week - battling to keep its blowhole above water, but was fast losing its fight when volunteers arrived.

Video footage shows the cetacean - which could have travelled 4,500 miles from the Caribbean - fighting for its life.

Volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue worked for hours - hanging off the side of boats with their heads in the water - to cut the terrified animal free.

And against the odds it survived the ordeal to swim off into the deep.

Volunteer Noel Hawkins, 49, from Ullapool, Ross and Cromarty, in the Highlands, said: "It was managing to lift its head up and down but it was quite distressed when we first got to it.

"It was trumpeting and breathing very fast. That noise you hear on the video isn't the boat - it's the whale exhaling.

Underwater footage of the whale. Picture: SWNS

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"Once we started work it did begin to be more still.

"That seems to be a bit of a humpback trick. I like to think that's them knowing that they are getting help.