Packard told reporters that he was on his second dive, going toward the bottom of sea when he felt “this truck hit me.” Packard’s ordeal captivated Twitter on Friday. “We spit the food out, and some of us would leave the restaurant.”Īccounts of Mr. “We certainly don’t eat any more,” he said. When the whale realized it had caught something that was not its typical prey - in this case, an unsuspecting lobsterman - it responded the way a human who accidentally ingested a fly would, Dr. They lunge fast, open their mouths and use baleen plates to “filter” the water out before swallowing the fish, Dr.
Humpback whales spend much of their time in that part of New England, searching for and engulfing small schooling fish, said Jooke Robbins, director of the humpback whale studies program at the Center for Coastal Studies. The whale, possibly a 32- to 35-foot juvenile that had previously been seen swimming in the area, was most likely diving for food when it inadvertently caught Mr.
Still, the encounter is explainable, he said.
“I’ve never heard of that ever happening,” Dr.
