When Adrian Simankas was kayaking with his father Dell in the Bay of Bahia El Aguila near the San Isidro lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan, a humpback whale surfaced and grabbed him and his yellow kayak for a few seconds.
The man’s father managed to film the moment. 2 “Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after the whale let his son go.
“I thought I was dead. I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me,” Adrian said.
He described the “horror” of those few seconds and explained that his real fear came only after he surfaced again, fearing that the animal would harm his father or that he would die.
“When I started surfacing, I was afraid that something might happen to my father, too, that we wouldn’t make it to shore in time or that I would suffer hypothermia,” Adrian said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrian managed to get to his father’s kayak and was quickly treated. Both returned to shore unharmed.
Located about 2,600 kilometers south of Santiago, the capital of Chile, the Strait of Magellan is a major tourist attraction in the country, despite the cold waters. Although it is summer in the southern hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with highs rarely exceeding 20°C.
AP points out that whale attacks on humans in Chilean waters are extremely rare, while animal deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years. In addition, whales strandings have become a constant problem over the past decade.
