WATCH: Terrifying moment whale swallows kayaker
The terrifying moment a whale swallowed a kayaker was caught on camera...
A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker in southern Chile before spitting him out unharmed – an amazing escape that was all captured on video.
Adrián Simancas was paddling off the Patagonian city of Punta Arenas on Saturday when the giant whale surged out of the water, swallowing him and his yellow kayak whole.
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Five seconds later, a stunned Simancas bobbed to the surface as the whale’s dorsal fin reappeared above the frigid, grey water.
Watch here:
Humpback whale swallows kayaker off Chile before releasing him. pic.twitter.com/UuUatMGUxN
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 13, 2025
"I thought it had swallowed me!" Simancas exclaimed.
The entire experience was caught on camera and quickly went viral after being posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas, who is heard shouting, "Relax! Relax!" to his understandably distressed son.
"Grab it, grab it!" the father adds, instructing his son to hold onto the kayak to stay afloat while the whale continues to swim behind him.
"Relax, relax, I'm coming," the father reassures him. "Let's go to shore."
The 24-year-old later told Chile’s TVN channel that he saw something blue and white passing close to his face.
"It was on one side and above me. I didn’t understand what was happening, and then I sank. I thought it had eaten me."
His father recalled turning around and seeing nothing.
"I didn’t see Adrián."
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"That was the only moment of real fear I had because I didn’t see him for about three seconds. And suddenly, he shot out," he told TVN.
Experts clarified that the whale could never have fully swallowed the kayaker, as humpback whales have relatively small throats.
"It seems that the kayak was right in the whale’s feeding patch – likely krill or fish," marine biologist María José Pérez of the University of Chile told AFP.
That is why it is seen "emerging to the surface sideways, with its mouth open".
"These events are very rare and tend to occur in the presence of silent vessels, such as kayaks," she explained, adding that the whale likely did not notice the small boat.
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Image: X/ Screenshot