Watch: Modern Day Jonah – Whale Gobbles Up Kayaker on Video Then Spits Him Back Out Still Alive
In an unusual incident that caught widespread attention on social media,a kayaker named Adrián Simancas experienced a remarkable and alarming moment when he was momentarily engulfed by a humpback whale while kayaking in the Strait of Magellan,chile,on February 8. Simancas, whose father was nearby and recorded the event, found himself inside the mouth of the whale for nearly three seconds before surfacing unharmed with his kayak. The footage shows Simancas paddling when the whale rose from below and took him and his vessel in its mouth.
His father can be heard urging, “Stay calm,” during the event. After resurfacing, Simancas expressed his fear that he might have been swallowed whole, stating he thought he was dead at that moment. Fortunately, he managed to swim back to his father despite initial fears of hypothermia and the safety of his father. Experts note that while humpback whales have enormous mouths, their esophagus is too small to swallow a human, making such an encounter less risky than it might seem. Simancas returned to shore without injury, and the video’s virality has contributed to discussions about the surprising encounter with these majestic creatures.
A kayaker spent nearly 3 seconds inside a whale, and although it didn’t come close to Jonah’s three-day record, it likely felt just as long.
Adrián Simancas had been kayaking in Chile’s Strait of Magellan on Feb. 8, when the incident happened, according to the Associated Press.
Simancas’s father, little more than a whale’s tail away, watched as his son disappeared into the whale’s mouth.
Video of the incident, which appears to be genuine, made a splash on social media.
NEW: Kayaker gets “eaten” and spit out by a humpback whale off the coast of Chile.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” the man’s father could be heard saying in the video.
The man, Adrián Simancas, says he thought the whale had swallowed him.
“When I came up and started floating, I was… pic.twitter.com/tu8FWuplIx
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025
The video showed Simancas paddling along when a humpback whale emerged from the depths to consume both him and his craft.
After vanishing for a few long seconds, Simancas bobbed back up to the surface with his yellow kayak in tow.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” Simancas’s father, Dell, can be heard saying in Spanish.
The whale’s back is then seen breaching the surface before diving below.
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián later told the Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Wild video shows the moment a humpback whale off Chilean Patagonia briefly swallowed a kayaker—only to spit him back out moments later. pic.twitter.com/4AHl0uNnrP
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) February 14, 2025
Simancas said his “terror” peaked only after resurfacing, according to the AP.
“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,” Simancas said.
Simancas eventually swam to his father’s kayak before returning safely to shore uninjured.
Humpbacks, which belong to the baleen family of whales, can ingest tons of krill each day, according to the website Whale Scientists.
But despite having enormous mouths, their esophagus at rest is usually no bigger than a tennis ball.
And although their esophagus can inflate by 30 percent, it’s still anatomically impossible for them to swallow a person, according to the whale blog.
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