Is the video of the man being swallowed by the whale real?

[confusedlots]

Having watched it, I can't help but think it's been made with AI. And if it did actually happen, then how lucky it was that someone was filming him at the right time. That's the problem with AI, I don't know what's real and what's not anymore. But it just seems too far fetched to be true!

Yes why are they saying swallowed when clearly he wasn’t

I heard a scientist on the BBC tonight saying there was never a prospect of him being swallowed because this whale’s gullet is the diameter of a watermelon. Nevertheless … very alarming for the poor fella.

I really can't imagine a stranger experience than this!
Great story to pull out at dinner parties!

Huh? It came up on my social media feed, so I didn’t “seek it out” and it wasn’t gory 🤣

Also - agree he wasn’t swallowed. Perhaps “held in the whale’s mouth momentarily” works better 🤣

Just stuck my hand inside my Jellycat whale's mouth. Definitely soft. 👍

Yes I believe it's real.

I also follow a tiktoker called scuba dan who I adore his content of and on one of his dives his dive partner also got swallowed by a whale and spat out.

It's rare but it happens and it's not an aggressive attack from the whale it's simply just a really unfortunate occurrence.

Yeah, I watched the video and all you see is the whale breaching and the raft being flipped over. I don’t see him coming out of the whales mouth at all. Though I do believe he was scared witless.

The start of it looked fake to me. Also how is the father so calm? Surely if your son had been knocked off his kayak by a bloody whale you’d be shouting/screaming at him, no?

It’s real.

Meanwhile, the poor whale is thinking: ‘FFS, more plastic!’

Childhood phobia unlocked. I've had nightmares about this since I saw a cartoon about jonah and the whale. Heartened to read on here that it's physically impossible to actually be swallowed.

Looked pretty real to me

Ever since I learned what basking sharks were and that they're in English waters I have been terrified of accidentally finding myself inside of one which is daft really because I'm about 80 miles from either coastline and have only ever been for so much as a paddle in the sea.

I was more astonished to see that he was using an inflatable kayak in that situation (Magellan Straits)

It happens occasionally, so not sure why people would insist that it is impossible and AI. Humpbacks in particular are known for lunge feeding, where they rapidly ascend from below and open their mouths as they reach the surface, trapping the prey inside. If kayakers or paddle boarders are in the way trying to watch the whales they sometimes get knocked in or even topple into their mouths, though they get spit out again.

There was no gore death or injury and the video was just on the bbc news website!

This is one of my fears!

It's real!

It looks real to me and whilst he was literally just scooped up and then washed back out so not ‘swallowed’ it must have been pretty scary for that couple of seconds . I didn’t realise whales had teeny throats so I’ve also learnt something .

Absolutely! It happens to me just about every time I go on a dog walk. Especially by the river and especially in summer. (Midges.)
The opposite of serendipity ..

fabulous video.

It tickled me how quickly he was spat back out again!!! I wonder if the whale thought ewwww, when it realised the kayaker wasn't edible! He was bloody lucky though! I adore whales!

It reminds me of the way a connoisseur tastes wine....
whale served kayaker instead of wine? 😅

As humpback whales eat plankton, krill and small fish this would be the equivalent of us trying to eat an elephant. Which of course you can do one piece at a time but not whole.

Maybe more 'gargled' then... he gargled the human... but no, that doesn't capture the inadvertent nature of it... 🤔

We don't really have an expression in English for when a fly or spider gets in your mouth, that's the sort of vibe I'm reaching for... hmm...

Gagged on, maybe?