Nilamon ang isang lalaking nagka-kayak na kinilala bilang si Adrian Simancas sa karagatang sakop ng Santiago, Chile nang isang humpback whale, ngunit kalaunan ay masuwerteng iniluwa ng balyena.
Kasama ni Adrian Simancas, ang kanyang ama noong nagkakayak ito sa dagat na sakop ng Punta Arenas, nang lumutang ang balyena at isinubo siya.
Kaba at takot naman ang naramdaman ng 24-anyos na lalaki.
‘I felt like I was being lifted, but it was clearly too strong to be a wave,’ pahayag ni Simancas.
‘When I turned, I felt something blue and white passing close to my face, like on one side and above. I didn’t understand what was happening. Then everything… I went under and thought I had been swallowed,’ sabi pa niya.
Masuwerte naman si Adrian na niluha siya ng balyena at ang kayak nito na wala namang tinamong sugat. Nakuhaan ang buong insidente ng kaniyang Ama at ipinaliwanag ang pagkabigla sa nangyari.
‘I turned on the camera and heard a wave crash behind me, loudly. When I turned, I didn’t see anything,’ ayon kay Dell Simancas, ama ni Adrian.
‘So that was the only moment of real fear because I didn’t see Adrian for about three seconds. Then he suddenly shot out without the packraft, and a second later, the packraft emerged, and then I saw the fin of something,’ dagdag pa niya.
Paliwanag naman ng eksperto na ang naturang balyena ay malamang kakain ng kaniyang prey na mga malilit na hipon o Krill at mga isda sa ibabaw ng surface ng dagat kung nasaan ang kinalalagyan ng puwesto ni Adrian kaya’t ito’y napasama sa paghigop ng dambuhalang nilalang.
‘The gentleman happened to be very close to the whale that was just going about feeding behavior. The man was not swallowed,’ sabi ng wildife scientist na si Vanessa Pirotta.
‘These animals are not targeting human-sized prey. They don’t have the equipment to do what they need to do in order to devour a human,’ dagdag pa nito matapos ipunto ang narrow esophagus ng balyena na kilalang may maliliit na ngipin.
Ayon pa kay Adrian, inakala niyang katapusan na niya nang sandaling iyon.
‘I thought I was done for, that I was dead. It was like three strange seconds down there,’ saad niya.
