Kayaker Swallowed by Whale Details What It Was Like

These incidents involving humpback whales are rare. In 2021, American lobster diver Michael Packard was swallowed briefly by one as well.

“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” he told the Cape Cod Times. “I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth.”

He said that after less than a minute of being in pitch blackness, “I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside.”

Ultimately, it is scientifically impossible for a humpback whale to fully swallow a human, although it can easily fit one inside its huge mouth, which can reach around 10 feet, according to Nicola Hodgins of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a U.K. nonprofit.

The reason? A humpback’s throat is roughly the size of a human fist, she told National Geographic in 2021, and can only stretch to about 15 inches in diameter.