A humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. swallowed a diver who was engaged in lobster fishing.
The man is Michael Packard, 56, said he was diving into the sea about 14 meters deep when he heard a shot and then went all black. He added it initially he thought he was being attacked by a shark, but then he thought about a whale.
The story, which took place in 2021, has gone viral again in recent days.
Stunned, his first thought was that he had been captured by a great white shark and was lost.
“Then suddenly he came to the surface… and started shaking his head.” “He threw me in the air and I fell into the water. I was free and just floated there. I couldn’t believe it… I’m here alive to tell about it,” according to Britain’s BBC.
The diver was pulled from the water by a crewmate, rushed ashore and taken to a nearby hospital. In the end he only had some scratches but he was whole; no broken bones.
Interactions between humpback whales and people are rare, so the whale likely swallowed the diver by accident as it opened its mouth to feed on small fish.
Humpback whales can grow up to 15 meters long and can weigh around 36 tons. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, its global population is around 60,000.
They tend to feed by opening their mouths wide to swallow as much prey as possible, such as fish or krill. This is why some marine scientists believe what happened at Packard was an accident.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.