It was sunny and clear on
Friday morning and the water was calm off the coast of Provincetown, Mass.,
where Michael Packard was diving for lobsters.
His longtime fishing
partner, Josiah Mayo, was following him in their fishing vessel, the J&J.
The men had already caught 50
kg of lobster, and Mr. Packard was about 12 m underwater, looking for more.
Suddenly, the bubbles stopped, Mr. Mayo said. Then, the water began to churn violently. A creature breached the surface Mr. Mayo thought it was a white shark. Then, he saw the head of a whale. Moments later, he saw Mr. Packard fly out of the water.
The whale, a humpback, swam away as Mr. Mayo and another fisherman helped Mr. Packard back into the boat.
Such terrifying encounters are virtually unheard-of, according to Charles Mayo, Josiah Mayo’s father and a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, a town of about 3,000 people on the tip of Cape Cod.
There is an account of a
woman who was pulled down by
a pilot whale. There are reports of sperm whales that went on
the offensive after being harpooned. And in 1896, The New York Times reported
the implausible tale of a whaler who was found in the belly of a whale in
October 1891 and rescued alive.
“I’ve never heard of that
ever happening,” Dr. Mayo said of Mr. Packard’s ordeal. Still, the encounter is
explainable, he said.
The whale, possibly a 10- to 12-meter juvenile that had previously been seen swimming in the area, was
most likely diving for food when it inadvertently caught Mr. Packard in its
enormous mouth.
Humpback whales spend much
of their time in that part of New England, searching for fish, said Jooke
Robbins, director of the humpback whale studies program at the Center for
Coastal Studies.
When the whale realized it
had caught something that was not its typical prey it responded the way a human
who accidentally ingested a fly would, Dr. Mayo said.
“We certainly don’t eat any
more,” he said. “We spit the food out.”
Accounts of Mr. Packard’s
ordeal captivated
Twitter on Friday. That afternoon, Mr. Packard told
reporters that he was on his second dive, going toward the bottom
of sea when he felt “this truck hit me.”
His first thought was that
a white shark had attacked him, but when he did not feel teeth piercing into
him, he realized he was inside a whale.
“I was completely inside;
it was completely black,” Mr. Packard told
The Cape Cod Times. “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.”
Mr. Packard said he was in
the mouth for at least 30 seconds, wondering whether he would run out of air or
be swallowed. He said he struggled against the mouth of the whale and could
feel its powerful muscles squeezing against him. Then, he saw light and felt
the whale’s head shaking and his body being thrown into the water.
Mr. Mayo said he called 911
and an ambulance met them at the dock. He then called Mr. Packard’s wife.
“‘Hi, Mike is OK,’” Mr.
Mayo recalled telling her. “You’ve got to lead with that.”
Mr. Packard, who was
released from the hospital on Friday, had extensive bruises, but no broken
bones.
He said, “As soon as I heal
up, I’ll be back in the water.”
From The New York Times (edited)
