Diver spat out by humpback whale

A commercial lobster diver who got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale off the coast of Cape Cod in the US state of Massachusetts said he thought he was going to die. Michael Packard, 56, told WBZ-TV after he was released from hospital that he was about 14m deep in waters off Provincetown when he “felt this huge bump, and everything went dark”. He thought he had been attacked by a shark but then realised he could not feel any teeth nor pain. “Then I realised, oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth . . . and he’s trying to swallow me. And I thought to myself okay, this is it . . .

I was completely inside [the whale]; it was completely black.” His thoughts went to his wife and children. He estimates he was in the whale’s mouth for about 30 seconds, but continued to breathe because he still had his breathing apparatus in. Then the whale surfaced, shook its head and spat him out. He was rescued by his crewmate in the surface boat.