56-year-old lobster tracker, Michael Packard, has been fighting wild scavangers for a very long time. This may shock you, yet to get those succulent larger than average crawdads, he needs to jump profound submerged and snatch them by their paws at the sandy base. It's anything but an extravagant work, yet it covers the bills. It's a quite protected work, as well, until something turns out badly.
On the morning of June 11, 2021, Michael and his accomplice Josiah Mayo went out into the ocean to get a few lobsters. He nimbly thudded into the water, and when he arrived at the base, the schools of fish amassed our jumper. After one second, Michael felt a shock, and everything went dim.
He was unable to move, and something was pressing his whole body as though it's anything but a human-sized grape fit to be popped. The acknowledgment was momentary — the man was gulped down by something huge. From the start, Michael thought he was inside a shark, yet it more likely than not been something different since he was as yet alive and not destroyed to pieces. Something greater and without extremely sharp teeth. Then, at that point it happened to him — he had been gulped by a whale.
What do you do when a 30-ton humpback whale decides to slurp you up? Your whole life starts flashing before your eyes, and your mind keeps looping the same thought “Is this the way I die?” Pretty morbid, but that’s exactly what happened to Michael. The adrenaline heightened all his senses and turned seconds into hours. After a few of those hour-long seconds, the man started wiggling, punching, and kicking the sea beast, and at one point, the animal began to shake its head and spat the seaman out into the water.
Josiah’s colleague, Mayo, was looking at the commotion from the boat on the surface. He watched the animal spit the man out, helped him get out of the water into the boat, and called rescuers and medics via radio. After Michael was rescued, he estimated that he stayed in the whale’s mouth for around 30 seconds. It must have been the worst 30 seconds of his entire life.
Thankfully, Packard sustained no serious injuries, aside from a dislocated knee and some bruises. Experts say that such situations are extremely rare and that humpback whales usually do not swallow people. These mammals open their mouths wide to absorb as much food as possible and if some diver gets sucked in with the fish, well, it’s not really the whale’s fault.
Michael also said that it was not the first time he was lucky to survive a dangerous encounter. Ten years ago, he flew over the jungle while traveling through Costa Rica when his plane crashed. The first and second pilots and most of the passengers died in the crash. However, five passengers, including Packard, were able to survive. They spent two nights in the jungle until rescuers found them. So, you could say that the humpback incident was not a big deal for our hero.
Just another Friday at Cape Cod.
