A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia. His father caught it on video.
- Associated Press
- Feb 13
- 2 min read
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 7:22 PM EST, February 13, 2025
PUNTA ARENAS, Chile (AP) — A humpback whale momentarily swallowed a kayaker near Chilean Patagonia before promptly releasing him unharmed. The incident, captured on video, quickly gained widespread attention.
Last Saturday, Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan when a humpback whale emerged, engulfing Adrián and his yellow kayak for a brief moment before releasing him.
Dell, just meters away, recorded the event on video while encouraging his son to remain calm.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after his son was freed from the whale’s mouth.
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”
He recounted the “terror” of those brief moments and explained that his real fear emerged only after resurfacing, worrying that the massive creature might harm his father or that he might not survive the icy waters.
Despite the frightening experience, Dell stayed focused, filming and reassuring his son while dealing with his own anxiety.
“When I surfaced and started floating, I was afraid something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn't reach the shore in time, or that I would suffer from hypothermia,” Adrián said.
After a few moments in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly helped. Despite the scare, both made it back to shore uninjured.
Located about 1,600 miles (3,000 kilometers) south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is a popular tourist destination in Chilean Patagonia, known for adventure activities.
Its icy waters present a challenge for sailors, swimmers, and explorers who attempt to navigate it in various ways.
Even though it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the area remain cool, with lows dropping to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) and highs rarely surpassing 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius.)
While whale attacks on humans are extremely uncommon in Chilean waters, whale fatalities due to collisions with cargo ships have risen in recent years, and strandings have become a recurring problem over the past decade.
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