We’ve featured some crazy travel videos involving whales including an Australian snorkeler getting tossed in the air by a humpback whale and a whale capsizing a fishing boat off the New Hampshire coast, but the video embedded below takes the cake.
Just a few yards away, Dell recorded the moment on video while urging his son to remain calm. “Stay calm, stay calm,” he is heard saying after his son was freed from the whale’s mouth.
His son told The Associated Press: “I thought I was dead” and that “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.” He described the terror he felt during those few seconds and shared that his true fear only surfaced after resurfacing, worried that the massive creature might harm his father or that he wouldn’t survive 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,” Adrián said.
Despite the frightening moment, both made it back to shore unharmed.
Even though it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, The Strait of Magellan, located about 1,600 miles south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, remains cool. It’s a popular tourist destination in Chilean Patagonia, known for its adventurous activities. However, its freezing waters present a challenge to sailors, swimmers and explorers attempting to navigate it in various ways.
I can tell you one thing: If I saw my son get swallowed by a whale, I would have had a heart attack right then and there and definitely would not have been as cool as Dell.
The good news is that humpback whale attacks on humans are extremely rare. Humpback whales are generally not aggressive towards humans. They are known for their gentle nature and are more likely to avoid human interaction. Most encounters between humpbacks and people, particularly in the wild, are peaceful and the ones that aren’t are by accident.
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