One of the fishermen told Good Morning America the whale appeared to know they were trying to help.
"She never fought us," Jason Vonick, 42, said. "She just sat there docile and calm the whole time and let us do what we needed to do.
Vonick, a 22-year veteran fisherman, was with his partners Nick Segal and John Oakes on Sept. 30 when they noticed the female orca had become stuck while hunting seals with other orcas.
The men spent four hours putting water over the 16-foot orca and trying to keep her calm until the tide came in enough for them to pry her free.
"We see whales from time to time but I've never, no one I even know, has ever done something like this," Vonick said of their once-in-a-lifetime rescue.
