A kayaker who momentarily found himself inside a whale’s mouth is speaking out.
On Saturday, February 8, Adrián Simancas and his father, Dell, were in Chilean Patagonia’s Strait of Magellan, a popular tourist destination, when he unexpectedly found himself inside the humpback whale’s jaws, according to the Associated Press.
Dell recorded the encounter, which showed the kayaker being swiftly sucked into the enormous animal’s mouth, going under the water for a short while, and then coming up a few yards distant.
Adrián told the AP that he was afraid for his life inside the whale.
In Spanish, he explained, “I thought I was dead.” “I believed it had swallowed me, that it had eaten me.”
In a another interview, he told CNN, “I felt like there was something slimy on my face when I turned around. I saw colors like dark blue, white, and something coming from behind that closed… and sank me.” “I believed there was nothing I could do at the time.”
At first, Adrián thought he had encountered a killer whale. He admitted to the AP, “I had that in my head because we had been talking about orcas just before.”
Thankfully, though, the whale let him go and he managed to get away unharmed.
But his attention changed when Adrián came to the surface. He added, “I was afraid that I might become hypothermic, that we wouldn’t make it to shore in time, or that something might happen to my father too.”
Adrián’s father eventually managed to get to him and assist him in getting to safety.
Since then, Adrián has had time to think back on the whale encounter. He clarified, “The whale probably approached me out of curiosity, or perhaps to communicate or something.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries states that the humpback whale is an endangered species that can be found “in all oceans around the world.”
Up to 60 feet long and 40 tons in weight, they usually “feed on shrimp-like crustaceans (krill) and small fish.”
