A commercial lobster diver was swallowed whole by a humpback whale as he was going about his business, only to be spat out again almost a minute later. As per incredible reports, the 56-year-old man was working off the coast and was about 35-feet below the surface of the water on, when everything suddenly went dark. It turned out the man had been swallowed whole by a humpback whale, and spent the next seconds of his life in the mammal’s gullet.
“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” Packard explained.
“I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth.”
Michael’s initial thought was that he had been eaten by a Great White shark, but he soon noted the lack of razor sharp teeth.
He says he thought to himself:
“This is it, I’m gonna die.
“I was completely inside [the whale]; it was completely black.
“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.”
Michael began to fight for the whale to release him, which it did after 40 seconds.
“I saw light, and he started throwing his head side-to-side and the next thing I knew I was outside [in the water],” Packard said. “My first thought was I can’t believe I got out of that situation. My second thought was for how injured I was.”
Friend Josiah Mayo claims he saw water spraying as the creature surfaced, and then Michael was ejected.
“I’m good overall,” Michael said.