Posted on 06/11/2021 3:07:56 PM PDT by billorites
A Cape Cod fisherman is recovering after miraculously emerging without serious injuries from spending nearly a minute in the maw of a humpback whale who mistook him for a snack.
“I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me,” fisherman Packard wrote on Facebook.
This salty tale begins innocuously, with the 56-year-old sea captain Packard on Friday morning looking for lobsters near Provincetown, where he’s from. He dove into the ocean to check a trap — when a passing whale gulped him down.
“He was in a whale’s mouth for 30 to 40 seconds, and then he was spit out,” his mother, local painter Anne Packard, told the Herald on Friday afternoon.
Michael Packard, on his way out from the hospital just a few hours later, told a local TV reporter he thought that was it for him.
“I realized I’m in a whale’s mouth, and he’s trying to swallow me,” a shaken-sounding Packard told WBZ. “I thought to myself, ‘Hey, this is it. I’m going to die.'”
But happily, his physical recovery seems to be going swimmingly. Medical personnel had suspected he’d broken at least one of his legs, but it appears he escaped even that, his mother said.
“He doesn’t have any broken bones,” she said. “He’s terribly fortunate.”
She said she’d just talked to him on the phone, and they didn’t get too far into what it’s like in a whale’s mouth.
But she did say, “He said he knew it was the end — he absolutely accepted it.”
Humpback don’t actually eat people. Experts say this kind of behavior is essentially unheard of, and likely is just a freak incident — a fluke, if you will. There’s a pretty good chance no one outside of Nineveh-bound biblical figures can match Packard’s story.
.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
Perhaps, if he was swallowed. Based on the article, he wasn’t swallow so the whale spit him out.
+1
Just taught a Sunday School lesson on Jonah and Nineveh a week or so ago. You know, Nineveh was located on the east bank of the Tigris River opposite from the city of Mosul of the Iraq war fame.
By the time the whale is done telling it to his friends the man is 250 pounds. Then next year he'll be 300 pounds. LOL
Poor whale .
Hope the guy find a mouthwash for leftist trash .
The poor sole, bet he won't miss *that* plaice.
“Amazing. I’d at least thought he’d be scarred from the animal’s stomach acids, or die of asphyxiation.”
Amazing how many post without reading the article!
they are baleen whales which filter feed.
They also eat fish.
I have watched this bubble feeding in Alaska. It remarkable to see the fish suddenly start leaping out of the water in huge numbers and just as suddenly see 5 or six huge gaping mouths rise out of the water under the fish.
The Kayakers in the video in Post 7 were probably there to watch Bubble Net feeding and got in the way.
Many will think this somehow affirms the Jonah and the Whale incident. Well, maybe in a small degree. But it wasn’t a whale that got Jonah. The Word sez God PREPARED a GREAT FISH to swallow Jonah. I believe that implicitly.
LOL! One of the funniest Seinfelds ever!
The Marine Biologist
True competition for the Bablyon Bee.
Yep, that was a real “Oh Shit” Moment. I was glad to hear they were spit out.
Oh my - one of my parents’ favorite restaurants. If you can call it that.
First words...WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE, best ride ever!
Scary experience, I am sure.
That is an amazing story.
How big do these whales get? In 1933 a sulfur bottom whale was caught off the coast of cape cod it was 100 ft long and had a mouth over 10 foot wide. A man who was unfortunate enough to be swallowed could take refuge in any one of the whales stomach chambers, or the large cranial cavities (extensions of the nasal sinus) which measure 7 feet high, 7ft wide and 14 ft long. More than big enough for a man to hide safely inside.
Comforting to know that. Not sure about humpback whales though. 8>)
Sounds like a ad for the Jay Peterman catalog.... Viva the Urban Sombrero.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.