Humpback Whale Swallows Diver

Hear the story about a Cape Cod lobster diver who was swallowed and spat out by a Humpback; no, it’s not the buildup to a punchline but a real account of one fisherman; ’tis true.

The diver claimed he was in the whale’s mouth for something like thirty seconds but still able to breathe through his scuba respirator.

Now science takes up the subject matter and provides some backdrop to this weird tale.

Of course this is a highly unusual event but according to one specialist there are certain types of behaviors that could have led to the man being swallowed; like diving too close to the whale’s normal food.

Michael Packard was 45 feet (14 meters) deep in the coastal waters off Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Friday (June 11), when he was suddenly quaffed into the mouth of an enormous mammal.

“All of a sudden, I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark,” he told WBZ-TV News.

At first he thought it was a shark but then realized he couldn’t feel any teeth.

“Then I realized, ‘Oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth … and he’s trying to swallow me,’” Packard told WBZ-TV News. “And I thought to myself ‘OK, this is it — I’m finally — I’m gonna die.’” Packard’s thoughts turned to his wife and his two sons, ages 12 and 15.

But then the whale, keen to remove it’s inedible, guest, surfaced, shook its head and spat him out.

“I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water,” he said. “I was free and I just floated there. I couldn’t believe … I’m here to tell it.”

Packard was hauled back onto his fishing boat by crew mate, who had been anxiously surveying the water’s surface for signs of bubbles from Packard’s oxygen respirator.

Astonishingly, Packard survived the biblical encounter with only a dislocated knee.

It’s thought that Packer was swallowed by a large baleen whale not a humpback; apparently these bus-sized whales dine on an assortment of sea creatures.

The consensus is a Humpback’s throat is too small to accommodate a human, although the force of its tongue could probably crush one.

But that’s not the end of it.

The Sperm whale, the famed subject of Moby Dick that swallowed its prey, is thought to be the only marine mammal capable of eating an entire human being.

Once inside one of the sperm whale’s four stomachs, a hapless human would likely asphyxiate on the gas before being crushed by powerful muscles and dissolved by digestive acid.

So far; there are no reliable reports of any human ever meeting such a grim fate says Livescience.