A modern day Jonah

[Scooter]

Humpback whale gulps and spits out Cape Cod lobsterman

A US lobsterman has been describing how he escaped being swallowed by a humpback whale.

Michael Packard says he was diving when he ended up in the marine giant's mouth for about 30-40 seconds off Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The leviathan spat him out and Mr Packard was left with nothing more than a suspected dislocated knee.

Despite his wife's pleas to get another job, he has no plans of giving up a 40-year career diving off Cape Cod.

Humpback whales can grow to as long as 50ft (15m) and weigh about 36 tons. According to the World Wildlife Fund, their global population is about 60,000.

Mr Packard, 56, told the Cape Cod Times he and his crewmate took their boat, the Ja'n J, off Herring Cove on Friday morning where conditions were excellent, with water visibility at about 20ft.

He told WBZ-TV News that after jumping off the vessel in scuba gear into the water, he "felt this huge bump and everything went dark".

He thought he had been attacked by one of the great white sharks that swim in the area, "and then I felt around and I realised there was no teeth".

"And then I realised: 'Oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth and he's trying to swallow me. This is it, I'm going die'."

Mr Packard says he thought about his wife and two boys, aged 12 and 15.

"Then all of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head.

"I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water. I was free and I just floated there. I couldn't believe… I'm here to tell it."

His topside crewmate, who had been desperately scanning the water for telltale bubbles from Mr Packard's oxygen respirator, hauled him back into the boat.

Provincetown Fire Department confirmed to CBS News they had responded to a call at 08:15 local time (12:15 GMT) to help an injured lobsterman at a Provincetown beach.

Journalists interviewed Mr Packard about his Biblical ordeal after he was discharged from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

Humpback whales tend to feed by opening their mouth wide to gulp down as much prey, like fish or krill, as possible, leading marine scientists to speculate that what happened to Mr Packard was in all likelihood purely accidental. One expert told the Cape Cod Times it was practically unheard of for a whale to swallow a human.

[Long Run]

Baleen out of there was a miracle!

[Gob]

Total fluke.

[Econoline]

I'm sure the whale will put that on his podcast.

[BoSoxGal]

More on this amazing story:

Cape Cod scuba divers believe the lobster diver who says he was trapped inside a whale. Here’s why.
"I don't think he's lying at all. I think it's amazing what happened."

[ex-khobar Andy]

I have trouble believing that a whale that filter feeds could swallow or even have in his mouth something as big as a human. However, the doctor's reasoning:

“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” an unnamed Cape Cod Hospital emergency room doctor told The New York Post.

is nonsense. 45 feet is nothing and from memory you could probably stay there for a couple of hours with no decompression required. (My dive tables are in a box in the basement somewhere and I can't get access on line without signing up.) So long as he is breathing out he will have zero trauma and breathing out on ascent is second nature to an experienced diver.

[BoSoxGal]

I have trouble believing that a whale that filter feeds could swallow or even have in his mouth something as big as a human. However, the doctor's reasoning:

“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” an unnamed Cape Cod Hospital emergency room doctor told The New York Post.

is nonsense. 45 feet is nothing and from memory you could probably stay there for a couple of hours with no decompression required. (My dive tables are in a box in the basement somewhere and I can't get access on line without signing up.) So long as he is breathing out he will have zero trauma and breathing out on ascent is second nature to an experienced diver.

True but, it seems also that it might be second nature to catch one’s breath when caught in the mouth of one of the largest creatures on the planet.

As to how he got there, I find it totally plausible - as the article points out, baleen whales can’t see straight in front of them when they open their massive mouth to shovel up giant gulps of water from which they filter out at the yummy goodies. If a diver if just going down at the same time in the path of a humpback coming up underneath . . . and I’m sure that whale was surprised when it started filtering and felt a very big object!

It’s totally possible. I’m sure it’s happened at least once before on earth, and maybe that accidental Jonah did or didn’t survive - having scuba gear on would definitely give an advantage in that regard.

[Big RR]

nonsense. 45 feet is nothing and from memory you could probably stay there for a couple of hours with no decompression required. (My dive tables are in a box in the basement somewhere and I can't get access on line without signing up.) So long as he is breathing out he will have zero trauma and breathing out on ascent is second nature to an experienced diver.
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I agree. My dive tables are somewhere I cannot readily access as well, but I recall a quick (safe) rule of thumb that the depth (in meters) and time at depth (in minutes) must not exceed 50 to avoid the need for decompression. Given that 45 feet is about 11 meters, he could remain at depth for at least 39 minutes (around and average spport dive at depth) and be perfectly safe from decompression sickness.