For 30-40 seconds, Michael Packard struggled to escape the whale’s mouth and wondered if he would be swallowed whole.
Packard Family PhotoMichael Packard from his hospital bed on June 11 , 2021 .
In this narration , a man was swallow by a whale . And no — it did n’t take place in the pages of the Old Testament to a man named Jonah . It happened to a lobster diver named Michael Packard off the sea-coast of Provincetown , Massachusetts .
Packard had set off ahead of time in the dayspring on Friday , June 11 to dive for lobster with his sportfishing partner , Josiah Mayo . After a dissatisfactory first draw , Packard dive under the water to try again just before 8 a.m.
Packard Family PhotoMichael Packard from his hospital bed on 12 May 2025.
But as he scoured the sandy bottom of Herring Beach Cove , something dead struck him from behind .
“ All of a sudden , I felt this huge shove and the next thing I recognize it was completely black,”Packard later recalled .
Wikimedia CommonsA sunset at Herring Beach Cove , where Packard was diving when he was swallowed .
Wikimedia CommonsA sunset at Herring Beach Cove, where Packard was diving when he was swallowed.
From the surface , Mayo watched as Packard ’s air bubblessuddenly vanished . But he could n’t have possibly guessed what had happened to his partner below the waves .
A hunchback hulk had accidentally swallowed Packard in one huge gulp .
“ Everything work dark,”Packard said . “ I was like , ‘ Oh , my God , did I just get morsel by a shark ? ’ Then I feel around and I realized there was no teeth and I had feel , really , no great pain in the ass .
Michael Packard/FacebookMichael Packard has also survived a plane crash that left him stranded in the Costa Rican jungle for days, encounters with great white sharks, and nearly getting lost on the open ocean.
“ And then I realized , ‘ Oh my God , I ’m in a whale ’s mouth . I ’m in a whale ’s mouth , and he ’s trying to swallow me . ' ”
For a terrifying reach of 30 - 40 seconds , Packard struggle in the darkness . Questions hie through his capitulum . He still had his respiration setup on — would he be adhere in the whale ’s mouth until he lean out of air ? What would hap to his wife and teenage children ?
“ I retrieve to myself , ‘ fine , this is it … I ’m going to cash in one’s chips , ’ And I thought about my kid and my married woman . There was no getting out of there . ” Packard say , recalling that he could feel the whale wedge the muscles of its back talk .
Wikimedia CommonsA humpback whale breaching the water.
But then the hulk start to rock its header . Packard felt himself zoom toward the airfoil . And , like that , he was free .
Michael Packard / FacebookMichael Packard has also survived a plane crash that bequeath him maroon in the Costa Rican jungle for days , encounter with smashing white-hot sharks , and closely getting lost on the open ocean .
From their ship , Mayo go out a salvo of white water supply . Then he spotted Packard — soar up through the air . A charter sauceboat captain distinguish Joe Francis attend the same thing .
“ I saw Mike come fly out of the pee , feet first with his fin on , and land back in the water,”Francis sound out . He jumped aboard Mayo ’s boat and helped pull Packard out of the water .
“ I was inside it . I was inside its mouth , ” Packard gasped once they had him aboard . “ It tried to eat me . ”
Although Mayo worried that his fishing partner had meet broken castanets or an embolism — which can pass when a diver surface too quickly — Packard miraculously hold out with few injury .
That ’s in part because whales are n’t generally strong-growing toward human being . The whale who swallow up Packard belike did so by stroke while trying to bung .
Wikimedia CommonsA humpback heavyweight breaching the water .
“ They do what we call gulp feeding , and they can open their mouths up implausibly wide . ”explained Peter Corkeron , a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium .
harmonise to Jooke Robbins , the film director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown , when a humpback whale opens its back talk to eat , its mouth flourish like a parachute .
“ When they do that , they do n’t necessarily see everything , ” she order .
Thus , a whale can unsay something by misunderstanding — like a lobster diver . But experts say that what happen to Packard is highly , extremely rarified .
“ It ’s a very unusual chance event , ” said Corkeron . “ This is a one in a — goodness knows what — trillion chance . He was just luckless enough to be in the amiss spot at the incorrect time . ”
As for Packard , he ’s not hanging up his diving paraphernalia anytime soon . In addition to his clash with the hulk , Packard has survived a airplane clangour , confrontation with with child blanched sharks , and almost getting turn a loss at ocean .
In other news , he ’s not too shaken by nearly getting swallowed . Packard say he ’ll get back to diving as shortly as he ’s fully healed .
“ It looks like being the tough son of a accelerator pedal he is , he ’s ready to be back at it as soon as he can be , ” Mayo said . “ I retrieve we ’ll probably be diving in a week , which is pretty remarkable . ”
After record about the man swallowed by a heavyweight , learn about this unluckyfisherman who was defeat after rescuing a heavyweight . Or , reveal the sad story ofLulu the killer whale , one of the most polluted animals on the planet .
