A wild incident was caught on camera off the coast of Chilean Patagonia when 24-year-old kayaker Adrián Simancas was briefly swallowed and spit out by a humpback whale while paddling near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan.
Adrián was kayaking with his dad who managed to film unlikely scene. Both Adrián and his father managed to return to shore unharmed. In interviews Adrián described feeling a slimy texture and seeing dark colors as the whale’s mouth enveloped him.
Marine biologists say the incident was not predatory but rather a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Humpback whales primarily feed on krill and small fish and the massive animal was feeding at the surface when it inadvertently swallowed the kayaker. Luckily the esophagus of humpbacks is too small for large objects to pass to their stomachs and anything too big is reflexively expelled.
A kayaker, identified as Adrián Simancas, was briefly swallowed by a humpback whale off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed.
This happened last Saturday, when Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro… pic.twitter.com/tf2rGXoy3B
— Vani Mehrotra (@vani_mehrotra) February 14, 2025
