In a shocking turn of events, one unlucky lobster fisherman had the unfortunate experience to be scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale and yet live.
“I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out,” Michael Packard wrote on Facebook hours after his brush with the depths.
“A humpback whale tried to eat me,” he added. “I am very bruised up but have no broken bones.”
Mr. Packard was out on the open waters of Massachusetts for a day of diving when he came across an interesting discovery with his lobster nets: A whale shark! Upon further inspection, it seemed that this whale had been dead for quite some time and Mr. Pakcard alerted officials about what appeared to be a massive fishing net entangling its body to prevent any other animals from getting stuck as well.
Mr. Packard’s big fish yarn began when he found something while diving off the coast of northeastern state Maine – turns out there was no catch more exciting than finding himself face-to-face with a huge whale shark tangled up in ropes through which chum could pass freely into the water below where sharks were feeding voraciously.
“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” he said after being released from the hospital.
He was about 10 meters from the shore when he saw what looked like a shark coming towards him. The adrenaline kicked in quickly but after closer inspection, it became clear that this wasn’t an attack at all – there were no teeth and his wounds already healed themselves.
Mr Packard said he began to struggle but then: “I saw light, and he started throwing his head side-to-side and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” Mr Packard told the paper.
Scientists have been trained to save whales for so long, they are pretty good at it. But the one time a fisherman’s mate was ejected from his boat when an explosion of water suddenly erupted on top of him and he saw that Mr. Packard had made contact with this humpback whale, the shockwave would’ve knocked most people out cold. Josiah Mayo evidently is too tough for such nonsense because not only did he see what happened in detail but also witnessed firsthand how quickly another commercial fishing vessel arrived to rescue them both!
“I didn’t think it was a hoax because I knew the people involved… So I have every reason to believe that what they say is true,” she told AFP.
Ms. Robbins said that it sounds like she has never heard of an accident with this type but the only time he would have been in a wrong place at the right time is if there was some other issue going on, such as someone trying to run him over or something else terrible happening around him.
“When they (whales) fish… they rush forward, open their mouth and engulf the fish and the water very quickly,” she said, adding they have large mouths, but throats so narrow they wouldn’t be able to swallow a human.
The whale was too young to notice the object in its way, according to Mr. Mayo’s description which is worrisome considering how quickly they swim and their speed level of 18 knots on average! This means that it is imperative for people when observing whales maintain a safe distance so as not to scare them off again into deeper waters where more dangers are lurking about.
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