Main image via The Straits Times , SFGATE
Many thriller movies and series have made us afraid of going into the ocean with creatures unknown in its depth and but this man lived to tell his tale!
A fisherman from Massachusetts in the United States, was recently swallowed whole by a humpback whale while he was lobster diving.
56-year-old Michael Packard said that he first thought he was attacked by a shark and said that he "felt this huge bump, and everything went dark".
"Then I realised, oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth... and he's trying to swallow me," he said recalling the terrifying incident and thought, "This is it, I'm gonna die."
The 27,000kg whale had mistaken him for food and swallowed him but fortunately the fisherman was still able to breathe using his equipment.
He was in the whale’s closed mouth for about 30-40 seconds and he said that, "he was going to spit me out, or swallow me.”
"All of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head. I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water.”
"I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe - I'm here to tell it."
He was rescued by a crew mate in the boat after and fortunately didn’t suffer from any broken bones, but was very bruised up.
His fishing mate Josiah Mayo reportedly "saw the explosion of water as the whale surfaced and Packard was ejected".
The terrifying incident is no Pinocchio and Geppetto story, and the director of humpback whale studies at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said that he was just “at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
"When they (whales) fish... they rush forward, open their mouth and engulf the fish and the water very quickly," she said.
She also added that the whale "may not be able to detect quickly enough that something is in the way" and while they have large mouths, their throats are so narrow they would not be able to swallow a human.
Michael Packard said he thought about his children and wife before he ended up being rescued and treated at Cape Cod Hospital.
"I want to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for their caring and help."
Info via Mirror , The Straits Times
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