SOMETHING FISHY?
Docs question Cape Cod lobsterman’s claim humpback whale SWALLOWED him whole before spitting him out
DOCTORS are skeptical of a lobster diver and his tale that he was swallowed whole by a humpback whale and then spit out.
At least one doctor and one humpback whale expert questioned the legitimacy of the man's claims.
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Michael Packard, 56, said he was by a massive humpback whale on Friday in Provincetown, .
Packard said he was about 45-feet deep scoping for crustaceans when suddenly he felt a “huge bump," he told .
“I realized ‘My God, I’m in a whale’s mouth. I’m in a whale’s mouth - and he’s trying to swallow me," Packard said. “I thought myself ‘This is it. I finally -- I’m gonna die.’"
In the 30 to 40 seconds Packard said he was trapped in the animal's mouth, he said he thought of his wife and kids.
"I realized there was no overcoming a beast of that size," Packard said.
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Then, the mammal seemed to have second thoughts.
“All of a sudden he went to the surface and erupted and started shaking his head and I got thrown into the water,” Packard recalled. “And I was free.”
He was fished out of the water by his shipmate and rushed to Cape Cod Hospital.
At least one doctor told the that they had doubts about Packard's story.
“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” asked one doctor, who said he did not treat Packard personally.
The doctor added that he would have expected to see more serious injuries, such as hearing loss due to the change in water pressure.
Packard was released from the hospital with soft tissue damage just hours after the close encounter. He had no broken bones or other serious injuries.
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One humpback whale expert said the entire ordeal was very rare since humpbacks are not aggressive animals, especially towards humans.
"Based on what was described, this would have to be a mistake and an accident on the part of the humpback," said Jooke Robbins, director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies.
The whale, described by Packard and witnesses as "medium-sized", must have been a juvenile feeding on sand lance, Robbins told the .
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When humpbacks feed, their mouths billow out like parachutes, obstructing their vision, Robbins added.
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It is possible for the animal to wrap its mouth around a large object and then spit it out. However, cases of humpbacks injuring divers are extremely rare bordering on nonexistent, the director went on.
"It is not something I have heard happening before," Robbins said of Packard's tale. "So many things would have had to happen to end up in the path of a feeding whale."
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