Lobster Diver Caught In Humpback Whale’s Mouth

A LOBSTER diver said he thought he was going to die when he got stuck inside a humpback whale’s mouth.

A lobster diver said he thought he was going to die when he got stuck inside a humpback whale’s mouth. Diver, Michael Packard, said how he jumped off his boat near the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, yesterday, June 11. He was around 45 feet down when he “felt this huge bump, and everything went dark”.

Packard said he first thought that he had been attacked by a shark, a predator that is common in that area, until he realised he could not feel any teeth.

“Then I realised, oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth… and he’s trying to swallow me,” he told WBZ-TV News.

56-year-old Packard from Wellfleet, Massachusetts, recalled thinking “this is it, I’m gonna die”.

He said he thought about his children and his wife and was terrified that he would not be able to get out. Although he was inside for around half a minute, he was still able to breathe because he was wearing his breathing equipment, Sky News reports.

“I was free and I just floated there. I couldn’t believe. . . I’m here to tell it.”

Mr Packard was eventually rescued by his crewmate in the boat before being treated in Cape Cod Hospital.

On Facebook, he posted a statement saying: “Hi everyone. I just want to clarify what happened to me today. I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me.

“I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out. I am very bruised up but have no broken bones.

“I want to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for their caring and help.”

Mr Packard’s sister, Cynthia, first told the Cape Cod Times that her brother had broken his leg, however, he later said that his legs were just bruised.

A senior scientist and whale expert at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Charles ‘Stormy’ Mayo, told the newspaper that an experience like Mr Packards is very rare. Humpback whales are not aggressive and Mayo believes the encounter was accidental when the whale was feeding.

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