I’m the person who was swallowed by a humpback whale – that is what it felt like
A kayaker has told of the moment he thought he was about to be swallowed and eaten by a humpback whale in southern Chile.
Adrian Simancas was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas on Saturday when the giant baleen surged out of the water swallowing him and his yellow kayak whole.
Five seconds later, a stunned Adrian bobbed to the surface, as the whale’s dorsal again emerged above the surface of the frigid gray water. ‘I thought he’d swallowed me!’ Simancas exclaimed.
‘I thought it had already eaten me and swallowed me. But of course, I felt that maybe it was a killer whale,’ Adrian said after the unexpected encounter with the humpback whale.
‘We had been talking about orcas shortly before, so I had that in my head, but when I got out I understood that, of course, it was probably out of curiosity that the whale had approached me or maybe to communicate something.’
The entire remarkable episode was caught on camera and posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas, who can be heard shouting ‘Relax! Relax!’ to his understandably unrelaxed son.
‘When I turn around, I don’t see Adrian, my partner, my son. I don’t see him and I don’t see the boat. So I was surprised and worried,’ Dell later said.
‘Then I see him come to the surface and after him the boat comes to the surface. I see a body part of, a body part of a body of the whale.’
The astonishing moment the whale breached the water and ‘pulled Adrian down’
Adrian was filmed floating on the open water moments before the whale leapt out
Adrian Simancas (pictured) was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas on Saturday when the giant baleen surged out of the water swallowing him and his yellow kayak whole
The entire remarkable episode was caught on camera and posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas (pictured), who can be heard shouting ‘Relax! Relax!’ to his understandably unrelaxed son
In the video, Dell can be heard shouting ‘grab it, grab it’, instructing his son to keep a hold of the kayak to stay afloat. ‘Relax, relax, I’m coming,’ the father said. ‘Let’s go to shore.’
Adrian was later quoted by local outlet TVN as saying: ‘I saw something blue and white passing close to my face like on one side and on top but I didn’t understand what was happening. The next minute I sank. I thought I had been eaten.’
Adrian’s father Dell, a 49-year-old Venezuelan-born anaesthetist who lives in Chile, added: ‘I turned round and I couldn’t see Adrian and that was the only real moment of panic.
‘He disappeared for about three seconds and then shot out and that’s when I calmed down because I saw he was safe.’
The incident happened around 3pm local time on Saturday in the freezing waters of the 350 mile-long Straits of Magellan, considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The father and son were using inflatable kayaks they had been carrying in rucksacks during a previous trek on dry land.
Dell, who was filming his son, could be overheard telling his son: ‘Stay calm, stay calm, don’t get back into the boat, head for the shoreline, I’m coming’.
As he paddled towards him while the whale disappeared from view, he continued to urge him: ‘Stay calm, grab my rope, grab my rope, if we head for the shore everything will be fine’ before steering him away from the area.
The whale resubmerged, with the kayak pictured to the left
The father and son were kayaking on the Straits of Magellan when the whale emerged
In astonishing scenes, the kayak disappears from the surface of the water
The incident was said to have occurred around 3pm local time on Saturday
Dell, who cut short their expedition because of bad weather, said they were already planning their next kayaking trip although they would be taking more precautions next time.
Experts described the chances of being swallowed by a whale as ‘1-in-1 trillion’ after veteran US lobster diver Michael Packard ended up inside a humpback’s mouth for around 40 seconds off Provincetown, Massachusetts in June 2021.
It left him with nothing more than a dislocated knee after spitting him out.
He gave the thumbs-up from his Cape Cod hospital bed afterwards as he revealed he thought at first he had been attacked by a great white shark before ‘feeling around and realising there was no teeth.’
Michael, 45 at the time, added: ‘Then I realised: ‘Oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth and he’s trying to swallow me. This is it, I’m going die’
Admitting his thoughts turned to his wife and two boys then aged 12 and 15, he continued: ‘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 can’t believe I’m here to tell it.’
Experts described the chances of being swallowed by a whale as ‘1-in-1 trillion’
Dell, who was filming his son when the mammal breached the water, could be overheard telling his son: ‘Stay calm, stay calm, don’t get back into the boat, head for the shoreline, I’m coming’.
Dell, who was also uninjured and cut short their expedition because of bad weather, said they were already planning their next kayaking trip
Humpback whales can grow to as long as 50ft and weigh about 36 tons. According to the World Wildlife Fund, their global population is about 60,000.
They feed in polar waters and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish, and they usually use bubbles to catch prey.
Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown told The Cape Cod Times after the incident involving Mr Packard that it had most likely been an accident
She said that as humpback whales feed, their mouths open and billow out in a parachute-like manner, obstructing their vision.
Incidents of humpback whales injuring swimmers and divers are exceedingly rare, if not nonexistent, Ms Robbins said at the time, adding: ‘It is not something I have heard happening before’.
