After two hours of quiet Kayak off the coast of Chilean Patagonia, at the Magallanes Strait Sea, Adrián Simancas was surprised by a meeting he did not expect: a huge humpback whale emerged by his side and dragged him down. “I saw dark blue and white colors before feeling a viscous texture touching my face,” explained the 24 -year -old to ‘The Guardian‘. “I closed my eyes to prepare for the impact, but it was soft, as if I had hit a wave.”
He held his breath: “When his mouth closed around me and dragged me down, I felt like I was in a swirl, lying down and circling,” he continues. «If I had eaten, I would have died. There was nothing I could do about it ». The experience, which has gone viral thanks to the video recorded by his father, barely lasted a few seconds: the life vest took him back to the surface. Adrián was unharmed, although shocked.
However, experts clarify that at no time the young man was at risk of dying for having been swallowed. “The humpback whales have a small esophagus and feed on small dams (small fish, krill), so they could not ‘devour’ or ‘swallow’ to a human,” explains Maria José Pérez Álvarez, a marine biologist of the University of Chile and the Milenio Base Institute. He added that humpback whales have no teeth, but plates similar to brushes that use to catch and filter their prey. Nor could I have bitten it, “he said.
However, its enormous weight close to 40 tons, it could have caused fatal injuries, so Pérez Álvarez warns that the interaction between humans and whales must be avoided at all costs: «A humpback whale measures about 18 meters long . He could have given him a strong blow with some part of the body, even if it was unintentionally, and the person could have been injured ».
Simancas, who has been practicing kayak for a year, says that the experience has left him a deeper respect for nature and that in the future he will take even greater security precautions. “I felt blessed by a second chance to review the mistakes that led me to be there, not only in the expedition, but in life itself,” he says, although he says he will leave this sport “until next year.”
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