'Trapped for about 30-40 seconds. Yes, I was almost convinced I was going to die that day.' - The lobster diver in a Reddit AMA thread
A Massachusetts lobster diver was stuck inside a humpback whale's mouth in a horrifying incident for more than half a minute.
The giant marine animal swallowed the veteran lobster diver Michael Packard while he dived in for the second time in the day.
Licensed commercial lobster divers are trained to pluck lobsters off the sandy bottom. On Friday morning, 56-year-old Michael Packard dived off Provincetown and saw schools of sand lances and stripers swimming by.
About 10 feet from the bottom, everything turned black for Packard. After his release from Cape Cod hospital, he recalled that he initially thought he was under a shark attack. But soon, he realized he did not feel any bite, and there was no pain.
“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove, and the next thing I knew it was completely black. I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth.” - Michael Packard
Inside the whale's mouth, Packard kept breathing into the regulator of his scuba tank. He said he had resigned to his faith as there was no hope of winning over the beast. He left it on the whale to decide whether it wanted to swallow him or spit out.
“I was completely inside; it was completely black. 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.” - Michael Packard
After 30 to 40 seconds of the ordeal, the whale surfaced and threw the veteran diver out in the air.
He landed on the water and was floating there until Joe Francis, the captain of his boat, pulled him back on the deck, removed the tank, and calmed him down.
“I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” - Michael Packard
Later, Francis said, "Michael is damn lucky to be alive.".
Packard, who lives in Wellfleet, indeed is a lucky man. He replied on a Reddit AMA thread, which was set up by his son to answer questions from curious people that he was almost convinced that he was going to die that day.
He was discharged from the hospital later the same day. So now he has a great survival story to tell everyone he meets.