Humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chile before spitting him out
A shocking scene was caught on camera when a whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off the coast of Chile before it spat him out.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the incident occurred last Saturday (9 Feb) when a father-son duo were kayaking near San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan.
Whale briefly engulfs kayaker
In the video, the son was seen kayaking towards his father when a humpback whale surfaced with its jaws open. The animal then plunged back into the depths, taking the man and his kayak with it.
Source: @apnews on Instagram
For a brief second, both the whale and man disappeared beneath the surface. The man then resurfaced, struggling to stay afloat. He is soon rejoined by his kayak — both seemingly spat out by the whale.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” his father told him as the man swam to his now-overturned kayak.
The whale resurfaced once more between the son and his father, but this time with no intention of eating either.
Both uninjured in stunning incident
Despite the shocking encounter, the son was able to swim towards his father. Both subsequently escaped uninjured.
“I thought I was dead,” the son told AP. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
Despite fearing for his life, it was offset by concern that his father would be next once he surfaced.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too,” he said.
Meanwhile, his father provided a calm and reassuring presence for his son.
Despite the harrowing experience, both said the experience would not stop them from going kayaking again.
According to a wildlife scientist, the humpback whale was eating krill or fish during the incident. Unfortunately, the man was caught in the middle of its lunge-feeding.
“The gentleman happened to be very close to the whale that was just going about feeding behaviour,” she said. “The man was not swallowed.”
Additionally, she added that these whales simply do not have the ability to eat humans, pointing out that the humpback lacks teeth and has a narrow oesophagus.
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Featured image adapted from @apnews on Instagram.
