When Adrian Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Baya El Aguila Bay near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan, a humpback whale surfaced and grabbed him along with his yellow kayak for a few seconds.
The man’s father managed to film the moment. 2Stay calm, stay calm,» he can be heard saying after the whale released his son.
«I thought I was dead. I thought it ate me, that it swallowed me,» Adrian recounted.
He described the «terror» of those few seconds and explained that his real fear only came after he surfaced again, fearing that the animal would harm his father or that he would die.
«When I started to surface, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t get to shore in time or I would be exposed to hypothermia,» Adrian said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrian managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Both returned to shore unharmed.
Located about 2,600 kilometers south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is the country’s main tourist attraction despite the cold waters. Although it is summer in the southern hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with maximums rarely exceeding 20°C.
AP points out that whale attacks on humans in Chilean waters are extremely rare, while deaths of animals from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years. In addition, stranded whales have become a recurring problem over the past decade.
