A man from Massachusetts was swallowed by a whale last Friday while lobster diving off the Cape Cod coast that earned him the title of "real-life Jonah."
The Christian Post said 56-year-old Michael Packard from Wellfleet took a second dive to get lobsters 10 feet from the ocean floor when he suddenly found himself in darkness.
"All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove, and the next thing I knew, it was completely black," Packard recounted in an interview with Cape Cod Times.
"I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth. I was completely inside; it was completely black," he continued. "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."
Cape Cod Times said Packard was a professional and licensed commercial lobster diver who went to Herring Cove Beach in his "Ja'n J" vessel for his usual catch along with a fleet of boats after striped bass.
Packard, who studied Marine Technology and Fisheries at the University of Rhode Island, initially thought he was in a great white shark since it was common in the area. However, he figured he didn't suffer any visible wounds and he couldn't feel any teeth that he deducted he was swallowed by a humpback whale. He struggled inside that pushed the great mammal to shake its head that eventually lead him being brought back outside after 30 to 40 seconds when the whale surfaced again.
"I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water)," he said.
Packard was bought by those in the area when he was released by the whale to Hyannis' Cape Cod Hospital. He did not suffer any broken bones or any major injuries except "a lot of soft tissue damage."
"I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out. I am very bruised up but have no broken bones. I want to thank the Provincetown rescue squad for there caring and help," Packard announced in Facebook on Saturday.
Josiah Mayo, who was a crewman present at that time, relayed to Packard's sister, Cynthia, what he saw when the whale came to the surface. Mayo narrated that "there was all this action at the top of the water" when the whale burst to the surface. The great mammal then spurted Packard into the sea before it went back into the deep.
Mayo then took Packard before he radioed to shore for emergency assistance. He was met at Princetown pier by personnel from the local fire department who placed Packard in an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital.
Global News explained that Packard managed to live since humpback whales are really gentle giants who have no interest in humans and what happened was a mere accident, according to Marine Biologist Iain Kerr who was asked in an interview.
"The whale does not want a human dessert. (He) just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Kerr pointed out.
Kerr said that there were only two incidents similar to Packard's that he's heard in the thirty years of his encounter with whales and both incidents were purely accidental.
Packard's son, Jacob, created a Reddit post for him to answer questions people may have on surviving "being inside of a whale." As of writing time, the thread has already garnered 8,700 comments from people asking various questions on his experience along with other encounters he had in the deep.
