When an unwanted catch got tangled in a commercial fishing line, these two divers performed a stunning underwater rescue

After a commercial fishing boat ended up with an unwanted catch, two divers got a vulnerable species to safety.

When a giant manta ray got tangled up in a commercial fishing line off the coast of Costa Rica last month, two divers — British instructor Paul Slater and American Don Shellhammer, got the nearly 200 feet of fishing line off the 16-foot ray, as seen in this Yahoo! video.

“I was shooting GoPro video at the time and the dive master and I approached the animal from behind, deciding originally to cut the trailing line some 20ft behind the animal. We made a first cut of the line around the body, but he was pretty spooked and swam off,” Slater said, according to LittleThings.