Fifty-seven-year-old commercial lobster diver Michael Packard had been diving Friday morning off Herring Cove Beach when he was suddenly swallowed into the massive maw of the giant cetacean, as first reported by the Cape Cod Times.
Inside the pitch-black body of the beast, the signs that this was a whale became clear once Packard realized he hadn't suffered any wounds, as he had originally thought it was a great white shark — ocean predators that are becoming more and more frequent on the New England coast.
“I was completely inside; it was completely black,” Packard said after his recovery Friday afternoon, according to the Cape Cod Times. “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.”
Trapped within the metaphorical belly of the beast, Packard began struggling. Soon, the whale shook its head and after 30-40 seconds or so, it finally breached, flinging this modern-day Jonah out back into the sea.
According to the Cape Cod Times, Packard's crewman, Josiah Mayo, rescued him from the sea and had him evacuated. Before long, he was recovering in Cape Cod Hospital.
The incident is highly unusual and would likely have been an accident, according to Jooke Robbins, director of Humpback Whale Studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Cape Cod Times reported.
Humpbacks, in general, are rather non-agressive in general. Like many other whales, humpbacks lack teeth and instead possess baleen, which they use to feed small fish and plankton via a filter. Their mouths do not cause damage, and their esophagus is far too narrow to ever swallow anything as large as a person.
But this was far from the only time Packard has had such unbelievable luck. Back in 2001, Packard had survived a plane crash in Costa Rica, where he suffered severe facial injuries and broke multiple bones in his arms and legs, according to the Cape Cod Times at the time.
Packard himself has some fame due to his mother, Anne Packard, a renowned artist with work featured in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to The New York Post.
It all seems almost unbelievable. But for some, that seems to be quite literal, casting doubt that Packard truly dodged death from the jaws of a metaphorical leviathan.
One doctor at the Cape Cod Hospital expressed doubt. “He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” the doctor joked, according to The New York Post. He explained further that the injuries were far too light. The sudden change in water pressure should have at least caused hearing loss, rather than him emerging with only soft tissue damage.
Some other people in the fishing industry also were skeptical.
“People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe,” said Bay State lobsterman, who has fished the area for 44 years, to The New York Post. “It’s a first-ever that this would happen.”