Number 7 Michael Packard On June the 11th of 2021, Massachusetts man
Michael Packard had a brush with death reminiscent of the Biblical Jonah when he was taken in the
mouth of a humpback whale, off the coast of Cape Cod. The commercial lobster diver was in
about 45 feet of water when he felt a powerful blow which he compared to being hit by a truck.
Everything went dark as he struggled to find his bearings. Packard initially thought he’d
been attacked by a shark but then realized the creature didn’t have teeth. It was then
that he thought to himself “Oh my god, I'm in the mouth of a whale.” As the seconds ticked by,
compressed by the mammal’s crushing mouth, Packard believed he was going die by suffocation. However,
he then saw the light as the whale shook its head and threw him out. His crew mate,
who was driving the boat and following his dive, saw Packard resurface as the whale retreated.
Packard emerged from the harrowing experience with a dislocated knee for which he was treated
at a Cape Cod hospital. Marine wildlife experts weighed in on the incident and deemed it entirely
accidental. Once a humpback, or any other type of baleen whale, opens its mouth and lunges through
the water to filter feed, it might not always be able to avoid or detect what’s in its path.
While arguably the most outstanding, the incident hadn’t been Packard’s first close call. More than
a decade prior he’d survived a plane crash, in Costa Rica, in which several people died.
He was on the verge of death as well when he was found in the jungle, two days after the accident.
Number 6 Alicia Ramsey
In the summer of 2020, Alicia Ramsey was taking part in the Ningaloo Discovery Whale Shark
snorkeling tour, off the coast of Western Australia. At some point during the trip,
her group was approached by a humpback whale calf, with the mother following it close behind.
Ramsey ended up swimming between the two animals. The mother, after possibly
perceiving the 30-year-old as a threat, struck her with one of its massive fins. Ramsey remembered
feeling as if she’d been punched and only realized the extent of her injuries once she was back on
the boat. Her ribs had been severely damaged and barnacles on the whale’s fin had grazed her skin.
She was taken to Exmouth Hospital before being airlifted to the trauma ward at the Royal Perth
Hospital. Ramsey was treated and headed towards a full recovery but her doctors told a media outlet
that her internal injuries had been consistent with those seen in people struck by a car.
Number 5 Unknown Diver
Just days prior to Ramsey’s violent encounter, another diver was severely hurt by two humpback
whales while exploring the Ningaloo Reef with the same tour operator. The group was less than a mile
from shore when the unnamed 29-year-old woman was crushed between the colossal marine mammals.
The tour operators described it as a freak accident and believed that the whales,
a mother and its calf, may have been spooked by other animals in the water,
like orcas or sharks. It’s also possible that the mother had attacked the diver as an overprotective
response. Others in her group were also hurt as the whales swiped them with their tails and fins.
One man was flung out of the water while a woman suffered a torn hamstring. Their injuries were,
however, far less severe than those sustained by the diver that had been sandwiched between the
whales. She was in a lot of pain upon being rescued from the water. She was airlifted
to a Perth hospital in serious condition, with fractured ribs and internal bleeding. According to
subsequent updates, doctors were able to stabilize her and she wasn’t in life-threatening danger.
It’s unclear how hers and Ramsey’s encounters would influence the practice of swimming with
humpback whales in the future. At the time it was undergoing a trial period in the region.
It was regarded as safe even though the marine giants can weigh six times more than an elephant
and grow to be longer than a semitrailer. Number 4 Joe Howlett
In 2017, a Canadian lobster fisherman was killed by a north Atlantic right whale, moments after
he’d freed it from a rope entanglement. For nearly 15 years, Howlett had been using his knowledge
of knots and ropes to free the endangered mammals, of which only about 500 individuals
still exist in the wild. 59-year-old Howlett had reportedly been responsible for saving about two
dozen whales. On July the 5th he and other members of his Campobello Whale Rescue Team
set off on a coordinated rescue effort in which they were joined by other specialists,
from the New England Aquarium and the Canadian Whale Institute. Howlett headed out on a vessel
from Campobello Island, New Brunswick. It had been a rough few weeks for the whale population
in the region, as seven individuals had been found dead, either from being struck by ships
or in other incidents. Howlett and the rescuers reached the animal and successfully freed it.
Moments later, the whale made a big flip and struck Howlett. The largest North Atlantic
right whales can weigh over 110 tons, which is close to the weight of the average single-story,
unfurnished American house. Howlett’s body crumbled under the animal’s immense power.
His passing was lamented by his team and others involved in whale
rescue as well as by the federal fisheries department who deemed him “irreplaceable”.
Number 3 Capsizing off the coast of San Diego In 2014, Captain Cici Sayer and her passenger,
Dale Frink, were on a whale-watching trip off the coast of San Diego. They were observing
some blue whales, as they were feeding on krill, from what they’d estimated was a safe distance.
Suddenly, one of the creatures lunged towards the boat with its gigantic mouth
open. Sayer was afraid that it would bite into the rear of her vessel. The blue whale,
scientifically known as Balaenoptera musculus, is the largest animal known to have ever existed.
It can weigh up to 220 short tons, which makes it heavier than the Statue of Liberty,
not including the pedestal. At a maximum of 100 feet, it’s longer than two school buses
standing in front of each other. As the whale came down, Sayer’s 23-foot-long boat
started overturning. It was then that Frink grabbed his camera and started filming. He
and Sayer were dumped in the water about 12 miles from the coast, but neither of them had sustained
significant injuries. Another boater reported the accident and helped them out of the water.
According to the Coast Guard, a commercial salvage vessel was called to right the floundered boat.
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Number 2 Rainer Schimpf
In 2019, Rainer Schimpf was documenting Port Elizabeth Harbour's sardine run, off the coast
of South Africa. The sardine run is the largest animal migration event in the Southern Hemisphere.
Whales, seals penguins, dolphins and sharks work together to rally the fish
into bait balls for easy catching. 51-year-old Schimpf, who worked as a dive tour operator,
would document the run every year. While filming a shark as it was going through the bait ball,
Schimpf was suddenly enveloped in darkness and felt great pressure on his hip.
He was inside the mouth of a Bryde’s whale, an animal that can grow to be
50 feet long. There was nothing that he could do to break free from the whale’s massive jaws.
Schimpf held his breath and hoped that the animal wouldn’t take him to greater depths,
which would’ve undoubtedly ended his life. It was the most dangerous aspect of his predicament, as
it was impossible for the creature to swallow him. Bryde’s whale is part of the baleen whale family
and, as such, doesn’t have teeth but baleen plates suited for trapping small creatures like plankton,
krill or sardines. Moreover, its esophagus is smaller than the size of a basketball.
Not even the enormous blue whale, which is part of the same family, can swallow a human. Fortunately,
Schimpf was released after a few seconds and was unhurt. A photographer on a second boat
managed to capture the terrifying moments and an image of Schimpf, halfway inside the whale’s
mouth, subsequently became viral. Number 1 Sinking of the Essex
In writing “Moby Dick”, considered a masterpiece of American literature, author Herman Melville
drew inspiration from the real-life story of the Essex whale ship. In 1820, while at sea in the
southern Pacific Ocean, the ship was attacked by an abnormally large sperm whale bull which,
by survivors’ accounts, measured nearly 85 feet. After lying motionless in front of the Essex,
it started swimming towards it, gaining speed by shallow diving. The enormous animal rammed
the ship, rocking it from side to side, and then surfaced, stunned, on its starboard side. First
mate Owen Chase would remember that the whale had “fury and vengeance in his aspect” as, again,
it started to pick up speed and charged the boat with its head half way above the water. It struck
the vessel once more, crushing its bow. The tremendous force of the strike pushed the Essex
backwards and, as the bull freed its head from the shattered timbers, a gaping hole was revealed. The
whale swam away, never to be seen again, and the crew of the Essex was left desperately struggling
to survive. The ship went down and the 20-strong crew rigged and equipped the remaining whaleboats
with whatever they could salvage. Approximately 2,000 nautical miles from the west coast of South
America, their ordeal had just begun. With insufficient supplies, they suffered from
starvation and dehydration as well as exposure to the elements. They were lost at sea for months
and those who survived did so by cannibalizing the remains of those who’d died. The men, at
one point, drew lots to see who they’d sacrifice so that the others could live. In the end, only
eight of them were rescued. Aside from Melville’s magnum opus, the book “In the Heart of the Sea”,
by Nathaniel Philbrick, and the eponymous 2015 film are based on the sailors’ ordeal.
Thanks for watching! Assuming you'd survive both, would you rather be swallowed whole by a blue
whale or crawl 500 feet through a sewage pipeline? Let us know in the comments section below!