Man Swallowed By Humpback Whale Has A Whale Of A Tale To Tell

June 12, 2021

In something truly biblical, a Massachusetts lobster diver was swallowed whole by a humpback whale.

Lobster diver Michael Packard

Michael Packard, 56, told WBZ-TV after he was released from Cape Cod Hospital that he was about 45 feet deep in the waters off Provincetown when "all of a sudden I felt this huge bump, and everything went dark."

He thought he had been attacked by a shark but then realized he could not feel any teeth and he wasn't in any pain. It quickly dawned on him that he had been swallowed by a whale.

"I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth," Packard told the Cape Cod Times.

"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."

Then the whale surfaced, shook its head, and spit him out.

"I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water)," said Packard.

He was rescued by his crewmate in the surface boat.

Packard was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon with what he described as "a lot of soft tissue damage" but no broken bones. He said he'd return to diving as soon as he was healed.

Watch the interview below.