Fisherman tells his terrifying experience after being swallowed by a whale.. he narrowly escaped

In a story that would have seemed fanciful if whale behavior were uncertain, a fisherman in the US state of Massachusetts survived a certain death, after a humpback whale briefly swallowed him before tossing him alive in the ocean.

A fisherman, Michael Packard, a descendant of Provincetown, wrote about 200 kilometers east of Boston, on Friday: “Hello everyone, I want to explain to you what happened to me today,” after this story reverberated to the local Cap Cod Times.

He added: “I was diving to catch lobsters (shrimp) when a charcoal whale tried to snuff me, I stayed in his closed apartment for 30 to 40 seconds, before he came up to the surface and tossed me.

He continued: “My body is full of bruises, but none of my bones have been broken, I thank the relief teams in Provincetown for their care and help.”

Questioned by CBSN Boston, Michael Packard explained he was diving at a depth of about 13 meters when “I suddenly felt a powerful blow and everything went black.”

At first he thought he was being attacked by a shark, but while he could still breathe with a dive device, he didn’t feel any pain from a shark bite, “and then I realized what was happening (and I said, Oh my God, I’m in the cradle of a whale trying to swallow me.”

He added : “I was thinking that I was going to die, I thought about my children and my wife and that it was impossible to get out of here, and suddenly, the whale came back to the surface and started moving his head and he threw me into the air and I landed in the water, I was loose and simply turned off, I couldn’t believe I had come out safe, and here I was telling what happened with me.”

This story appears to have at least one witness deemed credible: Josiah Mayo, who accompanied Packard on the fishing trip and followed him from inside the ship, helped pull him out and contacted aid workers for support.

Josiah Mayo is the son of a whale expert at the Coastal Studies Center in Provincetown, the region where whales breed this season, Jock Robbins, director of studies on humpback whales at the center, told AFP.

Robbins said : “I know the people involved, so I have every reason to believe what they are saying.”

Though she saw nothing and could not be sure of it, as she had never heard of such an “accident,” “the fisherman was probably in the wrong place at the wrong moment,” according to Robbins.

The expert noted that when hungry, these whales “sink deep into the water, swallowing fish and water very quickly, and then spit water through the baleen (whale bone), which works in a manner similar to the filter.”

Robbins explained that “her cleft is very wide,” but “her throat is narrow and she cannot swallow anything huge, like a human being.”

The whale, described by witnesses as a juvenile, “did not quickly detect the presence of an intruder” inside the whale, she said, adding that it may have been “surprised by the man’s swallowing” and the “opening of his apartment to take him out”.

But while full details are not known, a clear conclusion is available from this specialist, as tourists have begun returning to Provincetown and Cap Cod 15 months after the start of the pandemic: “It is important that people are aware of the existence of these huge mammals, ranging in length from 9 meters to 15 meters depending on the age”

And Jock Robbins said: “If you see a whale, stay away from it, it’s important to leave space for whales.”