Despite not eating larger prey, humpbacks and other baleen whales seem to accidentally get bigger animals in their mouths quite often, sometimes including humans. Other whale-mouth incidents have include a Bryde’s whale that engulfed and spat out a tour guide off the South African coast.
“I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.”
The whale appeared to notice that it had bitten off more than it could chew, and started to try and “spit” Packard out.
“And then [the whale] started going up. All of a sudden it just got to the surface and he started shaking his head and getting all erratic… and then boom! I f**king fly out of his mouth. And I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ But there I was just floating on the surface. And I was just looking up in the sky. I’m f**ked up, I know, but I think I’m going to live.”
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