A humpback whale briefly trapped a kayaker in its mouth off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed.
24-year-old Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell Simancas, when the massive whale suddenly surfaced, trapping the young man and his yellow kayak in its mouth for a few seconds before letting him go.
Dell, just meters away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm. “I thought it had eaten me and swallowed me”, Adrián said.
“I thought it swallowed me”
In the video, Dell is heard yelling to his son, who had been spat out of the whale, to “grab the boat.” Adrian then swims towards his dad’s pack raft and holds onto it as they pull away.
“I thought it swallowed me,” Adrian said in the video.
Speaking to CNN en Español, Adrian explained what it felt like to be briefly engulfed by a humpback whale.
“When I turned around, I felt on my face like a slimy texture; I saw colors like dark blue, white, something approaching from behind that closed… and sank me,” he said. “At that moment, I thought there was nothing I could do, that I was going to die, I didn’t know what it was.”
But despite the uncertainty, he felt his life vest “pull me up, and then two seconds later I was back on the surface and then started understanding what happened,” he said.
Dell told CNN en Español he began recording when he noticed “pretty waves that seemed exciting.”
He then heard “what sounds like a strong wave hitting behind me and when I turn around, I don’t see Adrian or his pack raft, so I got worried, and around three seconds later I see he’s shot up to the surface and the pack raft after him.”
When asked if both father and son would go back to kayaking, they said in chorus: “Of course.”
Humpback whale was likely lunge-feeding
Wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta said the humpback whale was likely lunge-feeding on krill or fish at the time, and the kayaker was in its way.
“The gentleman happened to be very close to the whale that was just going about feeding behavior. The man was not swallowed,” she said.
“These animals are not targeting human-sized prey. They don’t have the equipment to do what they need to do in order to devour a human,” she said, pointing to their narrow esophagus and lack of teeth.
The Strait of Magellan is a popular tourist destination due to its outdoor activities and flora and fauna. Kayaking with dolphins and humpback whales is one of the activities advertised on the government’s tourism website.
Related: First-Ever Photo of Two Male Humpback Whales Having Sex
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