Whale nearly eats a lobsterman, then thinks better of it

It was sunny and clear Friday morning, and the water was calm off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, where Michael Packard was diving for lobsters.

His longtime fishing partner, Josiah Mayo, was following him in their fishing vessel, the J&J, tracking him through the bubbles that rose from Packard’s breathing gear to the surface of the water.

The men had already caught 100 pounds of lobster, and Packard was about 40 feet underwater, looking for more.

Suddenly, the bubbles stopped, Mayo said. Then, the water began to churn violently. A creature breached the surface and for an agonizing split second, Mayo thought it was a white shark.

Then, he saw the fluke and the head of a whale. Moments later, he saw Packard fly out of the water.

“‘It tried to eat me,’” Packard sputtered, according to Mayo. The whale, a humpback, swam away as Mayo and another fisherman helped Packard back into the boat.

Such terrifying encounters are virtually unheard-of, according to Charles Mayo, Josiah Mayo’s father and a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, a town of about 3,000 people on the tip of Cape Cod.

Still, the encounter is explainable, he said.

The whale, possibly a 32- to 35-foot juvenile that had previously been seen swimming in the area, was most likely diving for food when it inadvertently caught Packard in its enormous mouth.

When the whale realized it had caught something that was not its typical prey, it responded the way a human who accidentally ingested a fly would, Mayo said.

That afternoon, Packard told reporters that he was on his second dive, going toward the bottom of sea, when he felt “this truck hit me.”

Packard said he was in the mouth for at least 30 seconds, wondering whether he would run out of air or be swallowed. He said he struggled against the mouth of the whale and could feel its powerful muscles squeezing against him. Then, he saw light and felt the whale’s head shaking and his body being thrown into the water.

Packard, who was released from the hospital Friday, had extensive bruises but no broken bones.