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'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

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Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#121

Post by ianhawes »

conductr wrote: post #99

I just chartered a whale watching tour out of Provincetown the day prior. Our Captain said there’s only been one humpback near by so far and we followed him/her around for a few hours. About half way through a few massive whale watching boats show up. I’ve been on a handful of tours like this before and know there are some rules in place but honestly it was shocking to me how aggressive those other boats were. The wh…

I was on a whale watching tour years ago when the captain noticed a smaller boat tailing us. It appeared to be an affluent family that had chartered the boat to get a closer view of whales. Our captain would kill the engine when in the vicinity of a whale, and we would drift a bit. It was nice because it would get quiet and you could track their movements better. The boat tailing us wasn’t doing the same thing and came precariously close to several whales. The family had high powered cameras and could basically look over the edge and straight down at some of the whales we saw. Unfortunately for them they also broke federal law by being too close under their own power. As we headed home we saw the Coast Guard intercept them. Our Captain had radioed it in. He estimated they were hit with some hefty fines.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#122

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #77
iron_ball wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teela Brown from Ringworld. She was the result of a selective breeding program intended to create the luckiest human alive... but it turned out the _real_ lucky ones were all the "failures" who did _not_ get recruited for an impossibly dangerous mission.

Luck seems to me to be a zero sum game, so if someone is lucky, someone else must be unlucky. It's like a new character on What We Do In The Shadows as a luck vampire.

[deleted]

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#124

Post by koheripbal »

wccrawford wrote: post #113
yongjik wrote: post #40

I wonder what the whale felt. Would it be swimming around telling its disgusted friends a cetacean equivalent of: "So I was just picking up strawberries in the backyard and all of a sudden this giant winged cockroach appears out of nowhere and before I know it that goddamn thing is in my mouth !!! Dammit I can still taste it. It's something you can't forget..."

Another article I read said that the whale deliberately surfaced, and that these whales typically get along with humans, so it's possible it was very aware of what was happening and was trying to save his life after it accidentally swallowed him. So I suspect the conversation was more about "I almost killed a human! Oh noes!"

It seems more likely that it was just trying to spit out some garbage.

It's possible the whale doesn't have the ability to clean its mouth as well underwater?

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#125

Post by icebraining »

iron_ball wrote: post #62
aspaceman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve liked the interpretation that high luck isn’t necessarily good. It just means highly improbable events happen to you more likely...

Teela Brown from Ringworld. She was the result of a selective breeding program intended to create the luckiest human alive... but it turned out the _real_ lucky ones were all the "failures" who did _not_ get recruited for an impossibly dangerous mission.

That mirrors Orwell's thought when he survived a shot in the neck during the Spanish civil war - everyone kept telling him how lucky he was, but he couldn't help but think it would have been luckier to not have been shot at all!

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#126

Post by state_less »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #90
ukyrgf wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is saying his "luck" skill is maxed out, so he is +10 while others could be having a real -10 of it.

maybe he sucks up all the available luck in the area, a kind of luck vampire, and everyone else dies because out of luck! I'd write the story but evidently we are already background in it.

In a large group of people, by chance alone we should expect some to be lucky multiple times.

I guess that's life in a quasi-infinite expanse.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#127

Post by JasonFruit »

mxcrossr wrote: post #36

> Initially, Packard thought he was inside a great white shark, but he couldn’t feel any teeth and he hadn’t suffered any obvious wounds. Is a great white shark actually big enough that you could end up inside it’s mouth whole?

You also might not be thinking that clearly if you had just been swallowed alive by a baleen whale. That he was reasoning with any clarity at all, in his situation, is impressive to me.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#129

Post by nobodyandproud »

iron_ball wrote: post #62
aspaceman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve liked the interpretation that high luck isn’t necessarily good. It just means highly improbable events happen to you more likely...

Teela Brown from Ringworld. She was the result of a selective breeding program intended to create the luckiest human alive... but it turned out the _real_ lucky ones were all the "failures" who did _not_ get recruited for an impossibly dangerous mission.

Thank you! I was wracking my brain just now, trying to remember where I read this.

Re: 'I was completely inside': Lobster diver swallowed by humpback whale

#130

Post by elliekelly »

enjrolas wrote: post #41

Another cameraman got gobbled by a Bryde's whale while he was filming a bait ball off the coast of South Africa a couple years ago. His wife took photos of him while he was half in the whale. Fortunately, the whale spat him out a few seconds later. As soon as he got out of the whale, he swam up to his wife to ask, "did you get it?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChcEb6mlEUo (worth the watch)

> As soon as he got out of the whale, he swam up to his wife to ask, "did you get it?"

What has social media done to our brains that this is often the first thing people think to say after a near-death experience?

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