A gigantic baleen swam out of the ocean, devouring Adrian Simancas and his yellow kayak before spitting him out unhurt. He was kayaking off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas.
In southern Chile, a humpback whale made an incredible escape that was caught on camera when it briefly swallowed a kayaker before spitting him out unscathed.
On Saturday, Adrian Simancas and his yellow kayak were completely engulfed by the enormous baleen that rushed out of the sea while he was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas.
Five seconds later, the whale’s dorsal surfaced above the icy gray water once more, and a startled Adrian bobbed to the surface.
Adrian said, “I thought I was dead,” to The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
He talked about the “terror” of those few seconds and clarified that his true anxiety didn’t come until he surfaced again, when he was afraid that his father would be harmed by the enormous beast or that he would drown in the icy waters.
“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,” Adrian recalled.
His dad, Dell Simancas, captured the entire amazing moment on tape and shared it on social media. He can be heard yelling, “Relax! Relax!” to his understandably agitated son.
The father continues, “Grab it, grab it,” telling his son to cling onto the kayak in order to stay afloat.
The father says, “Calm down, calm down, I’m coming.” “Let’s go to shore.”
Dell stayed composed in the face of the terrible event, photographing and comforting his youngster while battling his own anxiety.
The video became viral very fast.
Attacks by whales
Situated around 3,000 kilometers south of Santiago, the capital of Chile, the Strait of Magellan is a popular destination for adventure-seekers in Chilean Patagonia.
Sailors, swimmers, and adventurers who try to traverse it in various ways face difficulties because to its icy waters.
Despite the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, the region’s temperatures are still cold, with lows as low as 4 degrees Celsius and highs that hardly ever get over 20 degrees.
Although there are very few human-attacking whales in Chilean seas, strandings have become a common problem in the past ten years, and whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have surged recently.
