Whales are the overlords of the ocean, most cetaceans are large, blue whales are the largest animals on the earth, and cetaceans have a "good reputation" among humans, because cetaceans are friendly to humans, and it is rarely heard that cetaceans can hurt people. No, according to the British "Mirror" reported in China Daily on August 8, an American diver named Michael Packard had a close encounter with a huge humpback whale in June last year - swallowed by a humpback whale under the sea surface of about 14 meters deep, but in the end the man miraculously survived the "whale mouth escape", which was rumored to be a miracle.
Michael, 56, is a professional diver, and his decades of diving career have made him experienced, but Rao is so, a thing he can't think of or catch up, one day last June, he was diving as usual in the waters near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, at a depth of 14 meters underwater, he suddenly felt hit by a heavy object, was topped and then felt like he had entered a soft hole wrapped up, it was pitch black, nothing could be seen, and there was no exit.
Suddenly he realized that he might have been swallowed into the stomach by a big shark, and for a moment he felt that he was finished playing. In great chagrin, he still did not give up hope of survival, he struggled to grope around, found that the creature he swallowed had no teeth, he had not been bitten, and realized that it might be a creature larger than a shark. Whale shark or whale? Even if these giant animals have no teeth, the force of their mouth bites is far greater than that of humans, and it is basically impossible to escape from their mouths or stomachs! He was desperate when he suddenly saw the light again, when it realized that it had reached the surface of the sea, and at this moment he was being held in the mouth of a huge whale.
This is a humpback whale, it is a kind of baleen whale, the adult body length is generally between 12-16 meters, the weight is between 25-30 tons, its mouth is not particularly large in the baleen whale, but it is more than enough to put two or three people in the mouth, Michael can see the light, because the humpback whale swam to the surface of the water and opened its mouth, and released him, he was able to escape, and his colleagues photographed the humpback whale floating on the surface and spitting it out.
The feeling of the so-called "whale swallowing" should be like this! After being swallowed by a whale, you can still "whale mouth escape", this thing can blow for a lifetime! So why did this humpback whale swallow Michael in his mouth and then float to the surface of the sea and spit it out? Some people say that the humpback whale has a narrow throat, only 30-40 cm in diameter, and cannot swallow people, so it will spit it out; It is also said that it is possible that this humpback whale saw someone underwater and thought he was drowning, so he held it up and sent it to the surface of the water and released it.
Michael Packard of "Whale Mouth Escape", was slightly bruised but not in serious trouble
It's hard to guess what this humpback whale is thinking. But it is not very likely to have a good feeling for people, on November 2, 2020, in Avila Beach, California, the United States, there was an incident in which a humpback whale swallowed two women, when two people named Julie McSoly and Liz Kotril were sharing a yellow kayak to watch whales, unexpectedly a humpback whale suddenly jumped up from the sea, swallowed two women together with the kayak they were riding in, and the passengers playing around screamed, and the process was also filmed by other tourists. Fortunately, the humpback whale did not want to eat the two of them, and soon opened its mouth to release them, and the two women luckily "whale mouth escape".
Some people say that the narrow throat of the humpback whale can not swallow the human body into the stomach, this is not true, the humpback whale to kill humans, just swallow the person swallowed with the upper and lower jaws to squeeze the end of the matter, a few tons of pressure the human body can not bear, there is no need for teeth to bite, and the muscles in its throat can expand, swallowing people is not a problem, in fact, historical data show that such a thing also happened, in February 1891, a European whaling team in the South Atlantic captured a humpback whale when a crew fell into the water and disappeared, Later, the whale was caught on the ship, and the crew of the falling water was found in the stomach of the humpback whale, and the skin had been whitened by the whale's gastric juice bubbles, but due to the short time, the crew actually woke up, but the brain was affected by lack of oxygen, the response was sluggish, and some memory loss was lost, and it did not recover until three weeks later.
Compared with sharks and other animals in the ocean, cetaceans are indeed very friendly to humans, even those with teeth dolphins and killer whales rarely harm humans, killer whales are the "ceiling" of combat power in the ocean, but never heard of wild killer whales harming humans, but in the aquarium four trainers have died in the mouth of killer whales, three of which were killed by the same killer whale, all dragged into the water and drowned.
But in general, cetaceans are indeed very friendly to human relations, but the reason for friendly behavior is still a mystery, and friendship does not mean that there is no danger, nor does it mean that all cetaceans are friendly to humans, not to mention that human whaling behavior will definitely make whales hostile to humans, and those humpback whales that deliberately attack humans are likely to have been attacked by humans.
Resources:
"China Daily Network" August 8 article "Thrilling! Diver swallowed by humpback whale at a depth of 14 meters"