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A HUMPBACK WHALE briefly swallowed a kayaker in southern Chile, before spitting him out unharmed, an amazing escape that was all captured on video.
Adrian 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.
Five seconds later a stunned Simancas bobbed to the surface, as the whale’s dorsal again emerged above the surface of the frigid gray water.
“I thought he’d swallowed me!” Simancas exclaimed.
The entire remarkable episode was caught on camera and quickly went viral after being posted on social media by his father, Dell Simancas, who can be heard shouting “Relax! Relax!” to his understandably unrelaxed son.
“Grab it, grab it” the father adds, instructing his son to keep a hold of the kayak to stay afloat while the whale continued to swim behind him,
“Relax, relax, I’m coming,” the father says. “Let’s go to shore.”
The 24-year-old son told Chile’s TVN channel he saw something “blue and white passing close to my face, and it was like 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 said he turned around and “didn’t see anything, I didn’t see Adrian.
“That was the only moment of fear I really had, because I didn’t see him for like three seconds. And suddenly he shot out,” he told TVN.
Experts said the whale could never have swallowed the kayaker, as humpbacks have small throats.
“It seems that the kayak was right in the whale’s feeding patch (of krill or fish),” marine biologist Maria Jose Perez, 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 have happened in the presence of silent vessels, such as kayaks,” she said, explaining that the whale probably did not notice the small boat.
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Sympathy to the poor woman, but serious sympathy to the poor truck driver, this is becoming all to frequent in this country, he was only doing his days work, minding his own business.
That poor woman. Her whole life turned upside down on a morning where we all should be just enjoying the sunshine and then this happens. Devastated for her.
This is utterly horrible. Poor young mum. Poor wee kid. Words fail me
So tragic. How is that mother ever going to get over this. Rip little man. Watch over your mam.
Looks like it was deliberate. I could be wrong but it looks like attempted murder of the woman and murder/ suicide of the child and man. I know that road well and if he was from Lattin he would know it well too and would know not to overtake. Rip to both and my utmost sympathy to the mother of the little boy.
He’s not eastern European, his parents are Italian, but he was born and raised here,
Don’t like the look where this story is going
It’s easy to condemn but the poor man must have been in a very distressed state of mind to do something like that.
RIP.
Fcuk him. He just destroyed a mothers life and murdered her son. If he lives we would all be saying he should be locked up. But now that he died we feel sorry for him. And don’t get me started on the funeral service for this fella where the priests says “it’s a dark day”.. This man just murdered his son and attempted to murder his partner. S(umbag
Ricky.. Most murdering b@stards are in a distressed state of mind
When a mother murders her children society reaches out the hand of compassion and understanding.
Why is it not the same for fathers?
Ricky. Murdering mothers are worse than mothering dads
Just think about what happened here for a moment………and reflect on how this situation spiralled out of control to this point. The human tragedy involved.
Can we truly say we understand it and as such are in a position to make a judgement call one way or the other?
Sinead I hope you are never in a situation where your mind is so badly messed up by depression that you are not thinking rationally. Obviously this man was out of his mind doing this and it breaks my heart that a little boy has died and his mother had to go through such an assault, but nobody knows his circumstances and shouldn’t be quick to judge that he was ” evil” . I’m not saying I agree with what he did because I don’t , but with serious mental health problems a while back myself I know that your mind does not think normally . I certainly hope this is the case with him because I’d hate to think this WAS an act of pure evil
Oh no. That poor little boy. Whether the crash was an accident or deliberate, no child deserves that.
So sad, too much detail re the crash. Horrible set of circumstances
It’s just so sad to be hearing about theses suicides , people should always realised that life is 2 step backwards and 1 step forward , this carry on could be avoided… RIP to the little lad … So sad !
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