A humpback whale swallowed a man on a kayak off the coast of Chile last week, before he was quickly able to get out of the leviathan’s mouth unharmed.
Video shows the death-defying and terrifying moment from last Saturday, when Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan, off Chilean Patagonia.
As Simancas was paddling in what appeared to be an inflatable kayak, a humpback whale rolled on the surface with its mouth open, swallowing the kayaker.
Moments later, the tail broke the surface and the whale dove to deeper depth. Simancas and his yellow kayak then resurfaced after being freed from the clutches of the whale’s jaws.
The Associated Press reported that Dell captured the moment on video and encouraged his son to stay calm.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” the father was heard saying in Spanish after his son was released from the whale.
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told the AP. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
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He described the few seconds of “terror” to the wire service, explaining that his real fear set in after resurfacing, fearing that the whale would hurt his father or that he would die in the cold waters.
“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.
Adrián ultimately reached his father’s kayak, and both returned to shore without injuries.
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The Strait of Magellan, which is located about 1,600 miles south of Santiago, Chile, is a major tourist attraction in Chilean Patagonia, and is known for adventurous activities.
The frigid waters in the area pose a challenge for those who attempt to cross the strait.
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While whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years, and strandings have become a recurring issue in the last decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
