Unbelievable video of man swallowed whole by humpback whale
If you've ever seen the movie Pinocchio you likely remember the scene where the wooden boy and his creator Geppetto get swallowed by a whale. Or maybe you've heard the story of Jonah and the whale where the disobedient man is swallowed by a whale after a fisherman threw him overboard. In both stories the people were swallowed whole and eventually escaped the bellies of their fishy captor but the stories seem so far fetched that they're simply unbelievable, until recently.
Adrián Simancas and his father Dell Simancas were kayaking in Bahía El Águila, Chile when Adrián was briefly swallowed by a whale. Yes, these are real people, not cartoon characters. The pair were spending the day together, Dell recording on his phone like any other parent wanting to capture the moment to relive later when he wound up seeing the unbelievable.
Adrián is there one second and the next, a giant whale breaches the surface and just like that the younger Simancas is gone. The terror that likely coursed through Dell's body as he watched his child become a snack for a humpback whale is unimaginable. Thankfully, the terror was brief, within moments of being swallowed, the humpback whale spit the man back out. Maybe life jackets aren't appetizing.
whale tail on blue sea during daytime
Photo by Mike Doherty on Unsplash
But obviously, Dell wasn't the only person terrified by the whale's actions. Adrián tells Telefe Noticias, "I felt a blow coming from behind and he lifted me up. I felt a slimy texture on my face and saw dark blue colors with white. I thought I was going to die."
He explains to another news station, Noticias Caracol that even after the whale spit him out he was not sure if he was alive or what happened to his father. It was when he felt the life jacket pulling him to the surface that he realized he had survived the ordeal but still had no idea what happened since the whale came from behind him.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” he tells The Associated Press.
The 24-year-old and his father are from Venezuela and were only visiting the Chilean Patagonia for an expedition with a boating group. It was thanks to his father, who Adrián says has more paddling experience than him, and the boaters that the man was quickly rescued. Adrián escaped the situation completely unharmed, though it's likely a bit traumatizing to be unexpectedly swallowed by a whale while you're minding your business.
Whale GIFGiphy
Humpback whales are large creatures, weighing around 40 tons and reaching up to 60 feet long, which is about 15 feet longer and 30,000 pounds more than a full sized school bus. But generally humpback whales are not inclined to make humans a part of their charcuterie boards so attacks are extremely rare, their preferred food are actually tiny sea creatures. They eat plankton, krill and small fish, humans simply don't fit into their diet.
In Adrián's case, he was likely swallowed by mistake when the whale was breaching the surface with its mouth open, which is why he was promptly spat out. The moment is certainly something Adrián nor his father will ever forget and when someone thinks he's lying about becoming Jonah for a few seconds, he can simply pull out the video. Now that's what you call a whale of a tale.