Watch humpback whale swallow kayaker whole before releasing him

Video Description

Video: DELL SIMANCAS A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed. It happened in Bahía El Águila last Saturday near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan. Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell Simancas, when the massive whale suddenly surfaced, trapping the young man and his yellow kayak in its mouth for a few seconds before letting him go. Dell, just meters away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm. "Stay calm, stay calm," he can be heard saying in the footage, which has become one of the most striking and terrifying images in Chile in recent years. "I thought I was dead," Adrián told the Associated Press. "I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me." He described the "terror" of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing. Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry. "When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia," Adrián added. After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured. "I thought it had swallowed me," Adrián told his father in the video, still in disbelief. The incident happened in Bahía El Águila, in southern Punta Arenas, about 1,600 miles (3,000 kilometers) from Santiago. The Strait of Magellan is one of the main tourist attractions of Chilean Patagonia, known for adventure activities. Its frigid waters pose a challenge for sailors, swimmers, and explorers who attempt to cross it in different ways. Although February is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain low, with minimums dropping to 4°C (39°F) and highs rarely exceeding 20°C (68°F). Direct attacks by whales on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in whale fatalities due to frequent collisions with cargo ships, and whale strandings have become a recurring issue in the last decade.