Lobster diver Michael Packard has opened up about his terrifying experience of being nearly swallowed by a humpback whale—an encounter so unbelievable that many dismissed it as fiction until a similar incident occurred years later.
You might think getting swallowed by a whale is an impossibly rare event, but it turns out Packard isn’t the only one to have faced such a nightmare.
On June 11, 2021, while diving near Provincetown, Massachusetts, Packard found himself inside the mouth of a humpback whale. Recalling the moment, he described feeling trapped and powerless inside the massive creature.
“This is how you’re going to die. In the mouth of a whale,” he thought.
For 30 to 40 seconds, he remained inside the whale’s closed mouth before it surfaced and spat him out, leaving him floating on the water’s surface.
“[I] saw his tail and he went back down, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I got out of that, I survived.'”
Miraculously, Packard escaped with only bruises and a dislocated knee, but no broken bones.
Skepticism and a Similar Incident
Three years later, Packard has spoken out again in an interview with NBC10 Boston, revealing that many people doubted his story when he first told it.
However, a recent, strikingly similar incident has revived the conversation. In February 2024, kayaker Adian Simancas was nearly swallowed by a whale while kayaking with his father in Bahía El Águila, south of Punta Arenas. His father captured the jaw-dropping moment on camera.
Seeing the footage of Simancas’ close call brought back painful memories for Packard.
He recalled how local experts initially dismissed his experience, explaining that such encounters are extremely rare and accidental, as humpback whales are not aggressive creatures.
“We were both engulfed in the giant jaws of a whale, which is pretty darn scary,” Packard said, clarifying that “engulfed” is a more accurate term than “swallowed” in these cases.
Despite the skepticism he once faced, Packard’s extraordinary story now has an unexpected validation.
