We all know that whales don’t eat people but that didn’t stop one whale from giving it the old college try.
Discover our latest podcast
Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel were recently kayaking at California’s Alvia Beach this week when a whale managed to scoop up their boat.
Footage has emerged of the incident where a bystander captured the moment the women managed a last-second escape after almost being sucked into the whale’sopen jaws.
McSorley spoke to Fox 26 News about the incident stating:
I saw the big pool of fish, the big bait ball come up out of the water. I saw the whale come up. I thought, 'Oh no! It's too close. All of a sudden, I lifted up, and I was in the water.
McSorley’s friend and fellow whale victim stated that she thought they were going to die:
I'm thinking to myself, 'I'm going to push.' Like, I'm gonna push a whale out of the way! It was the weirdest thought. I'm thinking, 'I'm dead. I'm dead.' I thought it was going to land on me. Next thing I know, I'm under water.
If swimming with whales isn’t terrifying enough we can only imagine what it would be like to be that close to becoming the next Jonah and the Whale story.
By what can only be described as divine intervention or absolute sheer luck, the pair escaped unharmed but they did happen to lose their keys. Liz continued:
We got back to the car, I was shaking my shirt and a bunch of fish came out of my shirt. I was infatuated by them and in awe. But I never expected one to be right here, in my face!
Man survives in whale’s stomach
There have been multiple instances throughout history where reports were made about a man surviving in a whale’s stomach for three days. Back in the nineteenth century, newspapers reported a man named James Bartley had achieved the terrifying feat when a whale attacked his boat in the Falkland Islands. James was later found when the whale had died and was being carved out.
However, this story has long been debunked by the ship’s captain and the story had many inconsistencies.
However, more recently, another fisherman named Luigi Marquez claimed that he was swallowed by a whale and was stuck inside its stomach for three days and nights. The incident that occured back in 2016 was widely debated leading Marquez to later claim that he was only in the whale for 72 hours before it flushed him out. He stated:
This great beast swallowed me the morning after the storm. It is the most frightening thing I have ever lived. Everything was pitch black and I was shivering cold. The only thing that kept me alive were the raw fish I ate and the light from my waterproof watch, that is how I kept in touch with time. And the smell, I will never forget that horrible stench of putrid decomposition. I had to wash for three days before the odor went away.
Luckily, these women weren’t swallowed by a whale. Though, if they were it looks like they might have had a good chance of surviving.