Whale of a tale: US fisherman says swallowed by humpback

Gulls feed on the sand eels missed by a feeding humpback whale near Gloucester, Massachusetts

Gulls feed on the sand eels missed by a feeding humpback whale near Gloucester, Massachusetts

It sounds like a real-life take on "Pinocchio" -- a US lobster fisherman says he was scooped into the mouth of a humpback whale Friday and yet lived to tell the story. 

"I was in his closed mouth for about 30 to 40 seconds before he rose to the surface and spit me out," Michael Packard wrote on Facebook hours after his brush with the depths.  

Packard's beyond-belief big fish yarn began, he told local paper Cape Cod Times, when he was diving for lobster off the coast of the northeastern state of Massachusetts.

He was about 35 feet down (10 meters) and his first thought was that he had been attacked by a shark, but the lack of teeth and obvious wounds made him reconsider.

"I saw light, and he started throwing his head side-to-side and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water)," Packard told the paper.

Jooke Robbins, director of humpback whale studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, said she had no reason to doubt the account. 

Robbins said she had never heard of an "accident" of this type, but "it may be that he (Packard) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." 

The whale, which according to Mayo's description was on the young side, "may not be able to detect quickly enough that something is in the way." 

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Originally published as Whale of a tale: US fisherman says swallowed by humpback