A rare encounter where a kayaker in Chile was briefly scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale has been caught on camera.
A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed. The incident, caught on camera, quickly went viral.
Last Saturday, Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan when a humpback whale surfaced, engulfing Adrián and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.
Dell, just metres away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after his son was released from the whale’s mouth.
What happened to the kayaker?
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
He described the “terror” of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing, fearing that the huge animal would hurt his father or that he would perish in the frigid waters.
Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” Adrián said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured.
Located about 3,000 kilometres south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is a major tourist attraction in the Chilean Patagonia, known for adventure activities.
Its frigid waters pose a challenge for sailors, swimmers and explorers who attempt to cross it in different ways.
Although it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with minimums dropping to 4 degrees Celsius and highs rarely exceeding 20 degrees Celsius.
Are whale attacks common?
Whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters.
It’s also not possible for a whale to swallow something as large as a human, which is why the kayaker was spat out. While humpbacks have massive mouths, their throats are much smaller – only around the size of your fist. They can’t even swallow large fish like tuna.
It is more likely that the whale scooped up Adrián by accident while trying to feed on a school of fish.
Studies suggest whales are at increasing risk from humans and this incident serves as an important reminder to give these large marine animals their space.
Whale deaths from collisions with ships have increased in recent years with up to 30,000 killed or injured each year, according to the World Cetacean Alliance.
Everything from fishing fleets to cargo ships and whale-watching vessels poses a significant threat – especially to large whale species, many of which are endangered. Whale strandings on beaches have also become a recurring issue in the last decade due to the increasing impact of humans on our oceans.
These marine creatures are a living barometer of this impact, telling us vital information about the health of our waters.