Lobster fisherman swallowed by humpback whale but safe and sound

barely believable story. A lobster fisherman recounts being briefly “swallowed” by a humpback whale while diving off Massachusetts. He would have spent interminable seconds in the closed mouth of the cetacean before being spat out dented, but alive on the surface. Its story has been deemed credible by whale specialists.

“Hi everyone, I just want to clarify what happened to me today,” wrote fisherman Michael Packard, originally from Provincetown, nearly 200 kilometers east of Boston, after the story was brought up to the ears of the local newspaper, the Cape Cod Times.

“I felt this huge blow and everything went black”

“I was diving for lobsters when a humpback whale tried to eat me. I was in her closed mouth for 30-40 seconds, before she rose to the surface and spit me out. I have bruises all over, but no broken bones. I thank the Provincetown rescuers for their care and help, ”he wrote, after being briefly hospitalized.

Asked by CBSN Boston, Michael Packard clarified that he was about 13 meters deep when “suddenly I felt this huge blow and everything went black.” He first thought he had been bitten by a shark. But as he continued to breathe, thanks to his dive regulator, he felt no teeth, no big pain. “So I realized: Oh my god, I’m in a whale’s mouth, and it’s trying to swallow me. »

” I thought, That’s it (…), I’m going to die. And I thought about my kids, my wife, there’s really no way out of this. And all of a sudden, she burst onto the surface, started shaking her head. I was thrown into the air and landed in the water. And I was free, I was just floating… I couldn’t believe I had made it. And I’m here to tell it. ”

A witness witnessed the scene

It turns out that Michael Packard has at least one witness, deemed reliable: Josiah Mayo, who accompanied him in this fishing and followed him, to the bubbles, from their boat. It was he who helped him and fished him out, then called the rescuers for help. However, Josiah Mayo is the son of one of the whale researchers and experts at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, a region where whales feed in this season, Jooke told Agence France-Presse. Robbins, Center Director of Humpback Whale Studies.

“I know the people involved (…), so I have every reason to believe that what they are saying is true,” she said. Although she did not see anything and cannot be sure what happened, and had never heard of such an “accident” until now, “it is possible that (the fisherman ) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, ”she said.

When these whales are in search of food, “they charge, mouth open, and swallow fish and water very quickly, then reject the water through their baleen”, which act “like a filter”, he said. she explains. “Their mouths are quite wide”, but “their throats are quite narrow, there is no way they could swallow anything big” like a man, she continued.

“It is really important to give the whales some space”

The whale – which witnesses described as still young – may “not have detected early enough that there was an intruder” in its catch, she explained. Once the man “swallowed”, it is possible that she “was rather surprised and opened her mouth to get him out”.

Even if we do not know all the details, for this specialist, one conclusion is in order: while the regions of Provincetown and Cape Cod are seeing tourists return after 15 months of the pandemic, “it is important that people be aware” of these powerful marine mammals, which generally measure, according to the age, between 9 and 15 meters. “If you see a whale, stay a good distance. It is really important to give the whales some space, ”warned Jooke Robbins.