A lobster diver says he was swallowed whole by a humpback whale while looking deep-sea diving for lobsters and other creatures in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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56-year-old Michael Packard was on the ocean floor when he felt something push into him and suddenly everything went black Friday morning. “All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black, I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth,” Packard recalled. According to the Cape Cod Times, he initially thought that he was eaten by a Great White Shark but realized it was actually a whale that swallowed him.
“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.”
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He added that the whale apparently didn’t like what he swallowed so he felt it shake its head back and forth. “I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” and believed he was inside the animal for approximately 30 to 40 seconds. His colleague, Josiah Mayo, saw the whale push him back into the sea and rescued Packard. Packard was transported to the Cape Cod Hospital for treatment and doctors said he had “soft tissue damage.”