A heartwarming video captures the incredible moment a whale signals for assistance to remove a plastic bag from its mouth. And the story gets even more remarkable, as the grateful whale not only expresses gratitude but even indulges in posing for selfies after the bag is removed.

The group of fisherman who helped the mammal first noticed her after she nudged their boat to catch their attention in Middle Harbour, north of Sydney. She then circled the boat and swam underneath it.

The men then noticed she had rubbish bags and fishing line caught in her mouth and one of them – Ivan Iskenderian – quickly scabbled to pull both items out.

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Ivan’s friend Michael Riggio, 17, snapped a few selfies with the whale while another fisherman Ron Kovacs filmed part of the encounter from another boat. Afterwards the whale was seen by the fisherman flapping her fin and swimming away – apparently a showing her appreciation.

Ivan described the moment as ‘unbelievable’, telling Manly Daily: ‘It was surreal. We couldn’t believe our eyes.’ The other fisherman Rob added: ‘He just popped his head up so you could reach out and remove the garbage. He tried on my boat but we are a bit higher.