This is an archive article published on February 15, 2025

‘A slimy texture brushed my face’— Man relives being trapped in whale’s mouth

'I spent a second realizing I was inside the mouth of something, that maybe it had eaten me,' said the man.

'I was a little afraid of whether I would be able to hold my breath because I didn't know how deep I was,' said Adrián. (Photos: BBC/File)

By: Express Web Desk

4 min readFeb 15, 2025 01:44 AM IST First published on: Feb 15, 2025 at 01:44 AM IST

For Adrián Simancas, what started as a routine kayaking trip with his father turned into an unusual experience. The 23-year-old Venezuelan, now living in Chile, found himself engulfed by a humpback whale while paddling through the Strait of Magellan.

Though the internet has been abuzz with the shocking footage of the encounter, Adrián recalls it as a “second chance” when the whale spat him out, reported BBC.

The moment of realization

“I spent a second realizing I was inside the mouth of something, that maybe it had eaten me, that it could have been an orca or a sea monster,” Adrián told BBC Mundo. “I felt a slimy texture brush my face.”

“I wondered what I could do if it had swallowed me since I could no longer fight to stop it,” he said. “I had to think about what to do next.”

Then, suddenly, he felt himself being pushed back toward the surface. “I was a little afraid of whether I would be able to hold my breath because I didn’t know how deep I was, and I felt like it took me a long time to come up,” he recalled. “Finally, I got to the surface and realized that it hadn’t eaten me.”

Adrián’s father’s perspective

Just metres away, Adrián’s father, Dall Simancas, watched in disbelief as the event unfolded. “When I turned around, I didn’t see Adrián,” he said, as per BBC. “I was worried for a second until I saw him coming up out of the sea. Then I saw something, a body, which I immediately interpreted as most likely being a whale because of its size.”

A camera mounted on Dall’s kayak captured the moment, later providing an astonishing visual record of his son’s ordeal.

When Adrián watched the footage, he was struck by just how enormous the whale had been. “I hadn’t seen the moment when the back appears, and the fin is visible. That made me nervous,” he admitted. “But later, with the video, I realized that it actually appeared before me in such a huge size that perhaps if I had seen it, it would have scared me even more.”

Also Read: | Watch: Saudi man takes a ride on an endangered whale shark in the Red Sea

For Adrián, the experience wasn’t just about the physical shock—it left a lasting impression. “It invited me to reflect on what I could have done better up until that point and on the ways I can take advantage of the experience and appreciate it as well,” he said, as per BBC.

A scientific take

While the incident may seem like something out of a storybook, Brazilian conservationist Roched Jacobson Seba explained that it was a rare but accidental occurrence. Humpback whales have narrow throats “about the size of a household pipe,” making it physically impossible for them to swallow large objects like kayaks.

Also Read: | What’s behind orcas, also called ‘killer whales’, sinking boats?

“The whale was likely feeding on a school of fish when it unintentionally scooped up the kayak along with its meal,” Seba told the BBC. “When whales surface too quickly while feeding, they can accidentally hit or engulf objects in their path.”

The conservationist emphasized that encounters like this serve as a reminder of the importance of maintaining safe distances from whales in the wild. He warned against using silent vessels like paddleboards or surfboards in areas where whales swim, as these creatures rely on sound to detect obstacles in their environment.

(With inputs from BBC)