A kayaker has told of the terrifying moment he thought he was about to be swallowed and eaten by a humpback whale in southern Chile.
Adrian Simancas, 24, was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas on Saturday with his father when the huge whale jumped out of the water swallowing him and his kayak.
The incident was caught on camera and posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas, who can be heard shouting ‘Relax! Relax!’ to his son in the water.
The father and son were using inflatable kayaks they had been carrying in rucksacks during a previous trek on dry land.
Just a few seconds later a stunned Adrian bobbed to the surface and shouted ‘I thought he’d swallowed me!’
Speaking after the incident Adrian said: ‘I thought it had already eaten me and swallowed me. But of course, I felt that maybe it was a killer whale.
‘We had been talking about orcas shortly before, so I had that in my head, but when I got out I understood that, of course, it was probably out of curiosity that the whale had approached me or maybe to communicate something.’
His dad told the network: ‘When I turn around, I don’t see Adrian, my partner, my son. I don’t see him and I don’t see the boat. So I was surprised and worried.
‘Then I see him come to the surface and after him the boat comes to the surface. I see a body part of, a body part of a body of the whale.’
Adrian’s father Dell, a 49-year-old Venezuelan-born anaesthetist who lives in Chile, added: ‘I turned round and I couldn’t see Adrian and that was the only real moment of panic.
‘He disappeared for about three seconds and then shot out and that’s when I calmed down because I saw he was safe.’
The incident happened around 3pm local time on Saturday in the freezing waters of the 350 mile-long Straits of Magellan.
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Dell, who cut short their expedition because of bad weather, said they were already planning their next kayaking trip although they would be taking more precautions next time.
Experts described the chances of being swallowed by a whale as ‘1-in-1 trillion’ after veteran US lobster diver Michael Packard ended up inside a humpback’s mouth for around 40 seconds off Provincetown, Massachusetts in June 2021.
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.
Jooke Robbins, the director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown told The Cape Cod Times after the incident involving Mr Packard that it had most likely been an accident
She said 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 at the time, adding: ‘It is not something I have heard happening before’.
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