Viral video captures heart-stopping moment off Chilean coast
A terrifying yet incredible video of a humpback whale briefly swallowing a kayaker before spitting him out has gone viral on social media. The incident took place in the Strait of Magellan, off the coast of Chilean Patagonia, and was captured on camera by the kayaker’s father.
A close encounter with a humpback whale
The kayaker, identified as Adrian Simancas, was paddling in his yellow kayak when the massive humpback whale suddenly surfaced and engulfed both him and his boat in its giant mouth.
Just a few seconds later, Simancas resurfaced, visibly shaken but completely unharmed. His father, Dell Simancas, who had been filming the entire event, can be heard in the footage shouting instructions to his son.
“Relax! Relax!” his father yelled as the young man struggled to regain control. “Grab it, grab it… Let’s go to shore!” he added, urging his son to hold onto the kayak.
Kayaker describes the surreal moment
Speaking to Chile’s TVN channel, the 24-year-old kayaker recounted the terrifying moment:
“I saw something blue and white pass very close to my face… it was beside me and above me. I didn’t understand what was happening, and then I sank. I thought it had eaten me.”
His father admitted that he felt a brief moment of panic when he looked around and couldn’t see Adrian.
“That was the only moment of fear I really had because I didn’t see him for like three seconds. And suddenly, he shot out!”
A male kayaker was swallowed by a humpback whale off Chilean Patagonia before being released seconds later, unharmed.
Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, who filmed this video as the massive mammal suddenly surfaced. pic.twitter.com/0nuE6OP88s
While the footage may seem like something out of a movie, marine biologists quickly clarified that the whale could never have actually swallowed the kayaker.
According to Maria Jose Perez, a marine biologist at the University of Chile, humpback whales have small throats, making it physically impossible for them to ingest a human.
“It seems that the kayak was right in the whale’s feeding patch of krill or fish,” she told AFP. “That’s why it emerged to the surface sideways with its mouth open.”
Perez also pointed out that such events are extremely rare and typically happen when whales fail to detect small, silent vessels like kayaks.
A lucky escape
Despite the intense moment, Simancas walked away without injuries, and the whale continued on its way. The incredible video serves as a reminder of both the power and unpredictability of nature—and just how close humans can sometimes come to its wonders.
