Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time: In the Mouth of the Whale, Avoiding the Belly

"[I] felt this truck hit me and everything just went dark. And I could feel just ... hard stuff all around me. And I just thought, 'Did I just get eaten by a white shark?"

"And then I said, 'No, I don't feel an teeth'. And I said, 'Oh my God, I'm in the mouth of a whale. With his mouth shut."

Fisherman Michael Packard. (Courtesy of Michael Packard.)

"I'm like, 'This is how you're gonna go, Michael. This is how you're going to die. In the mouth of a whale."

"I just got thrown out of his mouth, into the water, there was white water everywhere. And I just was lying on the surface floating and saw his trail and he went back down."

"And I was like, 'Oh my God, I got out of that. I survived."

Michael Packard, Cape Cod fisherman, lobster diver

"This was a humpback whale. It was a relief because it wasn't a shark, which meant Michael would be all done at that point."

"It took [Packard] from behind and it seemed like it fully enveloped him immediately. That's kind of remarkable and so we can only imagine the whale was probably feeding."

"I like to think of it [the whale] as a teenager or a puppy ... it probably doesn't know what it's doing too well."

"If it was some yahoo, I think we'd be arguing if it actually happened. You see him narrating what happened and it's just ... so very clearly true and obvious what happened."

"It looks like being the tough son of a gun he is, he's ready to be back at it [lobster diving] as soon as he can be. I think we'll probably be diving in a week, which is pretty remarkable."

Josiah Mayo, Cape Cod fisherman

A humpback whale dives off the coast of Port Stephens, Australia, on Monday, June 14, 2021. A Cape Cod fisherman was swallowed by a humpback whale and has survived to tell the tale.

Mark Baker, Associated Press

 

They're fishing partners, they've been working together for the past 15 years. While one dives, the other remains in the boat, scrutinizing signals from the water, from his underwater fishing partner's breathing gear. Michael Packard was on his third dive of the morning, when his partner Josiah Mayo suddenly saw a fish burst to the surface off the coast of Cape Cod, in an explosion of white water. He watched, taken off guard, astonished at the size he first identified as a great white shark. He knew his first guess was wrong when he saw the flukes and the huge head.

Josiah Mayo had been watching the bubbles from his partner's underwater breathing gear. The watery explosion occurred seconds after he realized there were suddenly no more bubbles surfacing. He saw a boil of white water then watched mesmerized as his partner rose out of the ocean, flopping back down on its surface. Speeding his boat toward his partner floating in his drysuit, he hauled him into the boat. "I was inside it. I was inside its moth. It tried to eat me", Packard breathlessly informed his partner.

 

Fortunately for Michael Packard, lobster divers are not on the menu for humpback whales.  Credit...Miguel Medina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Josiah Mayo knew something about whales; not only had he worked on a whale-watching boat in his teen years, his father happens to be a well-known whale scientist. The logical explanation to the little drama the two men were part of, would be that the whale swallowed the lobster diver accidentally. The two men had set out for a day's fishing in calm waters. Working together for so many years, this was routine as they fished for lobsters, bluefin tuna and mackerel.

Michael Packard  plunged roughly 45 feet, almost touching the ocean floor with his third dive of the morning. After he realized he had been scooped up by a whale, he felt it swimming, shaking its giant head, himself within, his breathing regulator in his mouth. Within the whale's mouth he twisted, turned and felt an agonizing pressure on his legs for some 40 seconds. And then he saw the light when the whale opened its mouth and forcefully expelled him. After he was lifted out of the water, his drysuit removed, he was calm and aware.

 

Mr. Packard, center, and Josiah Mayo after bringing in a tuna in October. Mr. Mayo was aboard the J&J when he saw a humpback whale breach and spit out his longtime fishing partner.  Credit...Edward Boches

Another fisherman nearby had been called over to help them and Packard told the men his legs might be broken. On their part, the concern was that he might have suffered an embolism resulting from the whale driving him to the surface so quickly. An ambulance was called, a rescue squad and Mr. Packard's wife as they skimmed the water swiftly toward the dock. Tests confirmed that there were no broken bones, just badly bruised legs, and a dislocated knee. No sign of an embolism.

Fishing Boat that Michael Packard and Josiah Mayo were on when the interaction with the whale occurred ... Mary-Anne Bragg, Provincetown Banner