Santiago [Chile], February 14: Adrian Simancas, 24, was kayaking with his father in the waters off the coast of Chile, specifically the Strait of Magellan, when a humpback whale surfaced and swallowed both him and the boat on February 9.
The father, who was also kayaking nearby, filmed the entire encounter on his phone.
"I thought I was dead," Sky News quoted Simancas as saying. "I thought the whale was going to eat me after swallowing me," Simancas recalled of the life-and-death moment.
Luckily the animal let go after a few seconds, and the camera recorded the father's words reassuring his son to "stay calm".
After escaping from the whale's mouth, the young man was still in a state of panic, and at the same time worried about his father's safety. They hurriedly returned to shore immediately afterwards.
The father and son posted a clip recording the heart-stopping encounter with a humpback whale and a few days later the world press reported on the incident.
The Strait of Magellan is a tourist attraction in Patagonia, about 3,000 km from the Chilean capital Santiago.
In a similar case earlier, fisherman Michael Packard in the US was not so lucky after being swallowed by a humpback whale on June 11, 2021.
"A humpback whale tried to eat me alive. I have bruises all over my body but luckily no broken bones," lobsterman Michael Packard wrote on Facebook.
He said he was in the fish's (closed) mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds, before it rose to the surface of the sea and spat out the large prey, AFP reported on June 12, 2021.
The rare encounter with a humpback whale happened after Mr Packard dived into the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts to hunt for lobsters.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
