Humpback Whale Briefly Swallows Kayaker Before Spitting Him Out Unharmed

While Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father Dell in Bahía El Águila in the Strait of Magellan off the coast of Chilean Patagonia, he and his yellow kayak were unexpectedly swallowed whole by a nearby humpback whale, only to be spit out again unharmed. Dell caught the entire terrifying incident on video. Adrián told AP News that his first concern was hypothermia.

Of course there was a lot of terror, but what could I do? When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia

Despite this incredibly harrowing experience, Adrián understood that the whale was just curious or was trying to communicate with him.

(translated)Yes, I thought that it had already eaten me and it had swallowed me, but of course I felt that maybe it was an orca. We had been talking about orcas a little while before, so I had that in my head. But when I came out, I understood that, of course, it was probably out of curiosity that the whale had come closer or maybe to communicate something.