Humpback whale closes its mouth around a kayaker for seconds — he is not hurt

Adrián Simancas, 24, was paddling with his father Dell in southern Chile when a humpback whale came up under him. For a few seconds, the animal closed its mouth around Simancas and his yellow kayak. Then it let them go. Simancas was not hurt.

His father was a few metres away and recorded the moment. In the video, he repeats, "Stay calm, stay calm." Simancas later said, "I thought I was dead. I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me." After he was back in the water, he worried about his father, about reaching the shore, and about the cold sea making his body too cold. Then he swam to his father's kayak, and both returned with no injuries.

Vanessa Pirotta, a scientist who studies wild animals, said the whale was probably feeding on small fish and tiny sea animals called krill. Simancas was simply in the animal's way. "The man was not swallowed," she said. Humpback whales do not hunt people. They have no teeth, and their throat is too narrow to swallow a person.

The Strait of Magellan is about 3,000 kilometres south of Santiago, Chile's capital. People go there for adventure holidays, such as paddling near dolphins and humpback whales. Even in summer, temperatures can drop to around 4 degrees Celsius. Whale attacks on people are extremely rare in Chile. But danger can also go from people to whales. In recent years, more whales have died after being hit by cargo ships, and whales sometimes get stuck on beaches, a problem that happens again and again.