You know the stories- Jonah, Pinocchio- how they get caught inside a whale’s mouth and are trapped. Well, that’s just what happened to 56-year-old Michael Packard. The commercial lobster diver was out and about Friday morning doing his job off the coast of Cape Cod, when suddenly he felt a huge bump. Then that’s when everything went dark.
Sharks are common in the waters that he works in, and Packard believed that’s what he was attacked by, but he ruled against that when he couldn’t feel any sharp teeth, and he wasn’t in pain.
30 seconds. 30 seconds was the amount of time Packard estimated he was inside of the whale, but he still could breathe because he was still wearing his diving gear.
The whale must have gotten an unpleasant taste, because it resurfaced, shook its enormous head, and spat Packard out. Luckily, one of his crewmates was there to rescue him.
Packard’s sister had told media that he had broken a leg, but Packard said that no bones were broken, he was just bruised as told to Cape Cod Times.
A senior scientist and whale expert at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Charles “Stormy” Mayo, told the paper that something like this is rare.
Humpback whales tend to not be aggressive, so this could all just be a giant accidental incident. Most likely the whale was just having his morning breakfast and got that inevitable toy at the bottom of the cereal box that no one really wants.
Well, the good news is that Packard can now tell this Whale of a Story to all of his friends and family with a smile on his face. He was released from the hospital with minor injuries and has said he wants to return to diving soon.
