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A humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod bit off greater than it might chew on Friday when it by chance caught a business lobster diver in its mouth. Michael Packard advised CNN affiliate WBZ he was diving off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts when he unwittingly grew to become a modern-day Jonah.
“I bought right down to about 45 toes of water, and rapidly I simply felt this large bump, and all the things went darkish,” he advised the outlet. “And I might sense that I used to be transferring, and I used to be like, ‘Oh, my God, did I simply get bit by a shark?’”
“Then I felt round, and I noticed there was no tooth,” Packard continued. “After which I noticed, ‘Oh, my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth… and he’s attempting to swallow me.’”
Fearing he was going to die, his ideas went to his spouse and kids. He estimates that he spent about 30 seconds within the humpback’s mouth, respiratory all of the whereas as a result of he nonetheless had his respiratory equipment on, earlier than the whale surfaced, shook its head, and spit him out. Rumor has it the whale was final seen submitting a strongly worded Yelp overview about its expertise.
Packard was rescued by his crewmate in a close-by boat, rushed to shore, and brought to a close-by hospital. Except for being “all bruised up,” he stated, he walked away from the bizarre encounter with none accidents.
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Biologist Jooke Robbins, the director of the Humpback Whale Research Program at Provincetown’s Heart for Coastal Research, stated in an interview with CNN that the whale possible caught him in its mouth accidentally because the species is not identified to be aggressive.
“We don’t actually see humpback whales doing something like this usually,” Robbins advised the outlet. “I feel it was a shock to all concerned.”
When humpbacks interact in so-called “lunge feeding,” she continued, they shoot ahead within the water with their mouths open to shortly catch a big quantity of meals. In these moments, they don’t all the time see what, or on this case who, they’re gulping down.
Robbins stated that Packard possible wasn’t in any hazard of being swallowed although, as a result of whereas humpback’s huge mouths can maintain as much as 5,000 gallons of water, their throats aren’t giant sufficient to swallow prey a lot bigger than their standard weight loss plan of krill and small fish.
“It’s a bit of like sitting right down to a very nice meal, and into your mouth flies a fly,” she advised CNN.
Charles Mayo, one other marine biologist on the Heart for Coastal Research, advised the outlet that Packard was in additional hazard from the air strain in his personal lungs because the whale surfaced to spit him out.
“If you happen to come as much as atmospheric strain, and also you’ve held your breath, you could possibly develop an embolism,” Mayo stated. He added that to get out of such a state of affairs unscathed, Packard, who’s an skilled diver, should have relied on his experience to stay calm throughout the entire ordeal. Effectively, as calm as you may be while you nearly change into a leviathan’s snack.
“The explanation he’s nonetheless round is as a result of he’s good,” Mayo stated through CNN. “He’s a sensible man, he’s a tricky man, and he’s a fortunate man.”
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