3 weeks ago
8
THE kayaker who was swallowed whole by a humpback whale and miraculously survived has spoken out about his terrifying ordeal.
Adrian Simancas found himself inside the mouth of the 50-foot beast while he and his dad Dell were kayaking in the choppy waters off the coast off Punta Arenas in Southern Chile on February 8.
8
8
8
8
8
The 24-year-old, who was paddling the waves in his inflatable yellow kayak at around 3pm local time, was suddenly surrounded by the jaws of the humpback whale.
Seconds later, Dell, who had accidentally filmed the incredibly rare event, saw that his son had been spat back out by the animal.
Adrian has since spoken out about the moment he realised he was inside the mouth of a whale.
He told CNN: "I felt a slimy texture, I thought I was going to die."
read more on shocking moments
Shocking footage shows the moment the jaws of the 50,000lb beast suddenly breached the water and closed on top of Adrian, taking him under.
He told local news outlet TVN: "I saw something blue and white passing close to my face, like on one side and on top, but I didn't understand what was happening.
"The next minute I sank."
At first, he thought he was being knocked by a choppy wave after the weather took an unexpected turn.
Speaking to CNN, Adrian and his father revealed that they first spotted a spout of water before he ended up in the animal's mouth.
GOBBLED UP Moment kayaker is swallowed WHOLE by humpback whale before being spat out
Adrian said: "Half an hour before, I saw a small jet of water shooting out, then I felt a blow coming from behind, which lifted me up a little. I thought it could be a wave, but it was too strong.
"Then, when I turned around , I felt a slimy texture on my face and I saw colours like dark blue, white and something approaching from behind that closed in on me and made me sink.
"At that moment I thought that it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me."
Adrian only realised what had happened when he returned to the surface of the water with his kayak and saw daylight.
"When I got out and started to float there I was really afraid something would happen to my dad too," he said.
"That we wouldn't have reached the shore in time and I would get hypothermia."
At the same time, Dell was shouting to his shocked son telling him to remain calm and to use his kayak as a raft.
He could be heard saying: "Stay calm, stay calm, don’t get back into the boat, head for the shoreline, I’m coming."
As he paddled towards him while the whale disappeared from view, he continued to urge him: "Stay calm, grab my rope, grab my rope, if we head for the shore everything will be fine" before steering him away from the area.
The 49-year-old Venezuelan-born anaesthetist, who lives in Chile, recalled the moment on a Chilean TV programme, saying, "I turned round and I couldn’t see Adrian, and that was the only real moment of panic.
Are humpback whales dangerous to humans?
Humpback whales can grow to as long as 50ft and weigh about 36 tons.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, their global population is about 60,000.
They feed in polar waters and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth.
Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish, and they usually use bubbles to catch prey.
Attacks on humans by humpback whales are extremely rare but their size and weight means interactions can be harmful.
They are solitary animals and will rarely be close enough to humans to cause any impact - positive or negative.
Humpback whales cannot physically eat a person due to their incredibly small throats and all their food is filtered through the baleen plates in their mouths which are in place of teeth.
Anything too large that enters the whale's mouth will be spat back out.
Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown told The Cape Cod Times that as humpback whales feed, their mouths open and billow out in a parachute-like manner, obstructing their vision.
Incidents of humpback whales injuring swimmers and divers are exceedingly rare, if not nonexistent Ms Robbins said, adding: “It is not something I have heard happening before”.
"He disappeared for about three seconds and then shot out and that’s when I calmed down because I saw he was safe."
It all started when the duo set out for a Saturday morning trek before unpacking their inflatable kayaks to take to the freezing waters of the 350 mile-long Straits of Magellan.
Dell revealed that on Saturday afternoon it was not the whale incident that sent them back to land, but rather the unexpected change in the weather.
Experts have previously spoken out about the rarity of such an event, with one saying the chances of being swallowed by a whale as "1-in-1 trillion."
Adrian told CNN: "Whales do not swallow people, they have a very small oesophagus and a mechanism by which they rise to the surface and grab everything they find.
"They leave what is useful in their mouths and spit out the rest."
In June 2021, veteran US lobster diver Michael Packard ended up inside a humpback’s mouth for around 40 seconds off Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The incident left him with nothing more than a dislocated knee after spitting him out.
He gave the thumbs-up from his Cape Cod hospital bed afterwards as he revealed he thought at first he had been attacked by a great white shark before “feeling around and realising there was no teeth.”
8
8
8
English (US) · 