Packard was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon with what he described as “a lot of soft tissue damage” but no broken bones. He sees them all the time out there,” said Cynthia Packard. A Provincetown Fire Department ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital. Mayo picked him up, called by radio to shore and sped back to the Provincetown pier. June 11 last year started out as a normal day for Michael - but his world suddenly went black after he. Then the whale flung her brother back into the sea. Michael was swallowed whole by the humpback whale while lobster diving Credit: Stone - Getty. “There was all this action at the top of the water,” Packard said Mayo told her. Packard said Mayo saw the whale burst to the surface, and that he initially thought it was a great white shark. Packard’s sister, Cynthia Packard, spoke with crewman Josiah Mayo, who relayed some of the details to her. I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water), He estimated he was in the whale for 30 to 40 seconds before the whale finally surfaced. Outfitted with scuba gear, he struggled and the whale began shaking its head so that Packard could tell he didn’t like it. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys - they’re 12 and 15 years old. I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I was completely inside it was completely black.

It quickly dawned on him that he had been swallowed by a whale. Initially, Packard thought he was inside a great white shark, but he couldn’t feel any teeth and he hadn’t suffered any obvious wounds. I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth. Packard recalled Friday afternoon following his release from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis:Īll of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black. In something truly biblical, Packard was swallowed whole by a humpback whale. The water temperature was a balmy 60 degrees and the visibility about 20 feet. His vessel, the “Ja’n J,” was off Herring Cove Beach and surrounded by a fleet of boats catching striped bass.

Man swallowed by whale