A humpback whale briefly swallowed a 24-year-old kayaker last Saturday during a father-son excursion out on the icy waters around Chile’s southernmost Patagonia region.
The terrifying moment, captured on camera by the kayaker’s father, showed the whale surfacing in the Strait of Magellan and gulping Adrian Simancas for a few moments before releasing him.
“I thought it swallowed me,” Adrian said in the video.
“When I turned around, I felt on my face like a slimy texture; I saw colors like dark blue, white, something approaching from behind that closed… and sank me,” he said. “At that moment, I thought there was nothing I could do, that I was going to die, I didn’t know what it was.”
But despite the uncertainty, he felt his life vest “pull me up, and then two seconds later I was back on the surface and then started understanding what happened,” he said.
He then heard “what sounds like a strong wave hitting behind me and when I turn around, I don’t see Adrian or his pack raft, so I got worried, and around three seconds later I see he’s shot up to the surface and the pack raft after him.”
When asked if both father and son would go back to kayaking, they said in chorus: “of course.”
The Strait of Magellan is a popular tourist destination due to its outdoor activities and flora and fauna. Kayaking with dolphins and humpback whales is one of the activities advertised on the government’s tourism website.
Humpback whales typically feed on krill and small fishes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The NOAA says humpback whales are popular among whale watchers as they are active on the surface and often jump out and slap the water with their pectoral fins or tails.