A kayaker paddling in choppy waters near the city of Punta Arenas, Chile was swallowed by a humpback whale, but he escaped death when the huge mammal spat him out. Twenty-four-year-old Adrian Simancas was kayaking February 8 with his father in the freezing waters of the Straits of Magellan off the southern tip of South America when the incident occurred.
“I saw something blue and white passing close to my face, like on one side and on top, but I didn’t understand what was happening,” Simancas said. “The next minute I sank. I thought I had been eaten.”
His father, Dell, added, “I turned round and I couldn’t see Adrian and that was the only real moment of panic. He disappeared for about three seconds and then shot out and that’s when I calmed down because I saw he was safe.”
Dell, who had been filming Adrian when the whale breached the water, urged his son to stay calm and head for the shore. Then the whale disappeared.
It is assumed that the whale was confused, thinking Adrian was a fish that forms its normal diet. Humpback whales, which can weigh about 36 tons, feed in polar waters before migrating to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. They eat mostly krill and small fish. Experts say the chances of being swallowed by a whale are only one in a trillion.
This isn’t the first modern incident of a whale swallowing a man without deadly results. In 2021, a veteran US lobster diver named Michael Packard spent about 40 seconds inside a humpback’s mouth near Provincetown, Massachusetts before being spat out. Packard thought at first he had been swallowed by a shark before he realized the animal’s mouth had no teeth.
Adrian Simancas was unharmed by his encounter with the whale. And he and his father are already planning their next kayaking trip.
Comments: There is one other story in our files of a man ending up in the mouth of a whale in addition to the Simancas and Packard incidents. In 2019, Rainer Schimpf, a dive tour operator in South Africa, was swallowed by a Bryde’s whale. Fortunately, he was never in any danger of death because this species of whale has too small a throat to have swallowed him, and the animal prefers small fish such as sardines.
Many people have a hard time not thinking of Jonah’s experience inside a great fish when they hear of humans inside mouths of large sea creatures. Stories of people surviving experiences inside the mouths of whales may help to take a bit of the edge off ridicule from secularists toward Christians who believe the historicity of the Jonah account.
But Jonah’s experience was far different from those of the three men we just discussed. Jonah had to survive three days inside the belly of a fish, not a few seconds or minutes inside their mouths. His survival required a miracle. Inside the stomach of a whale, he was in danger of being crushed or being hurt by digestive juices. Also, getting enough oxygen might have been a problem.
Although humpbacks may not have large enough throats to be able to swallow adult humans, blue whales and sperm whales can accomplish the task. Also, great white sharks and whale sharks can do it. In addition, Jonah’s fish could have also been a now-extinct creature or a special fish created by God just for this one occasion. His fish didn’t need to have been a whale (despite the mistranslation in the KJV of Matthew 12:40). Yet, although whales aren’t classified as fish according to modern classification systems, they could have been considered fish in Bible times because they are creatures of the sea.
Of course, Jesus knew about Jonah, and He even compared his life to that of Jonah. “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40)
Knowing the species of the fish that swallowed Jonah or how he miraculously could have survived inside the creature isn’t the important thing. What is important is that just as Jonah emerged from the great fish alive and well, Jesus rose from his tomb alive and well to proclaim His victory over death and hell. His victory is also our victory!
By Warren Krug
Reference: Natalia Penza, “Watch: Kayaker swallowed by whale,” The Telegraph (February 13, 2025).
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
What was the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth?
In Death Valley, California, the temperature has gotten up as high as 134.1 degrees.
Source: “As a Matter of Fact–Hot or Cold?” Kids Answers [January-March, 2025], page 29.
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