Yogyakarta –
A video viral Of Twitter shows a humpback whale accidentally eating a kayaker. Are they alive or dead?
The incident was experienced by two women, Julie McSorely and Liz Cottriel, who were kayaking to see humpback whales on the coast of California, United States.
As quoted from News.com.au, Wednesday (7/6/2023) the short video is 20 seconds long. In the video shows a humpback whale with its big mouth lunging at the kayak being ridden by two women.
The video appears to end with a whale seen behind an empty kayak drifting on the water. The incident sparked many netizens who were worried about the safety of the two women who were allegedly swallowed by a humpback whale.
However, there was something that astonished everyone. It turned out that the two women reappeared safely and were in the vicinity of the fish. The incident shocked the two women.
The humpback whale apparently accidentally swallowed a human, but was eventually regurgitated by the whale. Because actually, humpback whales don’t eat humans.
The woman who experienced the incident, Julie McSorely, said she had intended to work up the courage to observe humpback whale feeding. But it’s different from Liz Cottriel, who actually doubts because of her fear of sharks and anything hidden under the surface of the sea.
For this incident, they did not realize that there would be the potential to be swallowed by the whale. According to Julie McSorely’s explanation, the boat she was on suddenly lifted and they were quickly thrown into the water. Unlike Liz Cottriel, she caught a glimpse of the whale’s mouth but thought it was its stomach and instinctively raised her hand to defend it.
“I thought to myself, I’m going to push, like I’m going to push a whale out of the way, it’s the strangest thought,” said Lez Cottriel.
Besides, he also thought he was dead. But in reality suddenly he was already under water. According to him, with the adrenaline rush, he was still entertained by the bold thought of getting rid of the whale.
The incident left the two women confused. How could they not, they weren’t sure of their relatively close position to the whale or indeed they were deliberately pulled down by the whale.
“Once we were in the water, we didn’t know where we were, were we under the whale or were we sucked up in the whale’s mouth,” McSorely said in explaining their disorienting situation.
With every effort that has been made to fight against the obstacles that are hit, the two women reappear simultaneously. They appeared together beside their kayaks and next to each other. This amazed them with the real experience they had just had.
Although attacks are rare, humpback whales have been known to prey on humans in the water. In August 2022, a humpback whale attacked a group of snorkelers off the coast of Western Australia, injuring two women.
The incident occurred during a snorkeling tour while watching whales near Exmouth on the North West Cape. It was discovered that the mother whale with a length of 15 meters swam aggressively towards the group, positioning herself among the swimmers. Meanwhile, the whale aggressively slapped its pectoral and tail fins on the water.
As a result a woman was hit in the tail which caused broken ribs and also internal bleeding. Meanwhile, another woman was hit by a whale fin and tore her hamstring. For this incident, Mat Winter, the owner of Ningaloo Whaleshark Swim, said that this incident had never happened before and emphasized that it might never happen again.
In an incident that has deeply worried many people, Australian oceanographers have warned that swimmers should maintain a minimum distance of 100 meters between swimmers and whales.
*This article was written by Windi Yusnita, a participant in the Merdeka Campus Certified Internship Program at detikcom.
Watch Video “Humpback Whale Sightings Off Sydney Beach“
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2023-06-07 13:45:05
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