The 56-year-old diver was about to be swallowed by a humpback whale in a terrifying encounter off Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA) last Friday morning. Michael Packard explained to WBZ-TV News that after jumping out of his boat into the water, "he felt a big hit and everything went dark." At first he feared he was being attacked by a shark. "I felt around and realized there were no teeth," he said. “And then I realized, 'Oh my God, I'm in a whale's mouth and it's trying to swallow me.'” He was still carrying his diving equipment and breathing apparatus inside the whale's mouth, but it was completely dark.
Packard said he thought to himself, "This is it, I'm going to die." He thought of his children and his wife. After about half a minute, the whale rose to the surface of the water and began to shake its head from side to side and suddenly spit it out and Packard fell into the water.
The diver was pulled out of the water by a crewmate, rushed ashore, and taken to a nearby hospital. In the end, he was only bruised but whole; without even a broken bone.
Interactions between humpback whales and humans are rare, so the whale likely swallowed the diver by accident when it opened its mouth to feed on small fish.
