A commercial lobster diver from Cape Cod has described the terrifying moment he was swallowed by a humpback whale off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Friday morning. Michael Packard, 56, of Wellfleet, said he was about 45 feet deep when he felt a huge bump and everything went dark.
Initially thinking he had been attacked by a shark, Packard soon realised he was inside a whale's mouth. 'I thought to myself, OK, this is it – I'm finally – I'm gonna die,' he told WBZ-TV after being released from hospital. He estimated he was trapped for around 30 seconds, but continued breathing through his apparatus.
The whale then surfaced, shook its head, and spat him out. Packard was rescued by his crewmate on the surface boat. He sustained bruising to his legs, contrary to earlier reports of a broken leg.
Experts say such encounters are extremely rare. Charles 'Stormy' Mayo, a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, described it as an accidental encounter while the whale was feeding on fish, likely sand lance. Humpbacks are not typically aggressive towards humans.
