Injured Humpback Whale Defies Odds by Swimming Without a Tail (VIDEO)

A humpback whale with a missing tail is defying odds.

The ocean wonder, named Catalyst, was originally spotted on July 10 in British Columbia, and then spotted again south of Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands.

A video shared on San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network Facebook page shows the whale struggling to swim thanks to a missing tail.

"It wasn’t until the whale went to sound that we actually saw the back end of the whale and the tail end being missing, and that was when you could hear a big gasp of disbelief," Campbell River Whale Watching co-founder Tyler Bruce said, according to GlobalNews.

Bruce explained that "a pretty significant part of the whale was missing," calling the scene "quite a shock."

Jackie Hildering, a humpback whale researcher, believes the mammal may have been injured after getting entangled in fishing gear.

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"A conservative estimate, and we are still pulling together our data, is that about 50 percent of the humpbacks that have been photographed on the coast … show that they have been entangled at least once," Hildering told GlobalNews.

Hildering hopes the situation can be a "catalyst for change, catalyst for awareness ... [and] catalyst for education."