BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) — A commercial lobster diver who got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale off Cape Cod in Massachusetts says he thought he was going to die.
Michael Packard tells WBZ-TV after he was released from the hospital on Friday that he was about 45 feet deep off Provincetown when he felt a bump and everything went dark.
He thought he had been attacked by a shark, then realized it was a whale. After about 30 seconds, the whale surfaced and spit him out.
His sister originally told the Cape Cod Times that her brother broke a leg, but he said later that his legs are just bruised.
Humpbacks are not aggressive and a whale expert says it was probably an accidental encounter while the whale was feeding on fish.