Cape Cod lobsterman’s whale of a tale sounds fishy, experts say

Cape Cod lobsterman’s whale of a tale sounds fishy, experts say

Something’s fishy.

At least one doctor at the Cape Cod hospital that treated the lobsterman who claims he was nearly swallowed by a humpback expressed skepticism Saturday to The Post about the whale of a tale.

“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” scoffed the Cape Cod Hospital emergency room doc.

A person traumatized by such an encounter should expect more serious injuries, such as hearing loss, because of the sudden change in water pressure from that depth, noted the physician, who did not treat Michael Packard after his brush with the leviathan.

Packard, 57, was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon, just hours after the incident, miraculously suffering only soft tissue damage and no broken bones or other serious injuries.

Michael Packard claims to have been swallowed by a whale while diving.

Packard, who could not be reached for comment, told the Cape Cod Times he was “completely inside” the massive mammal, which inadvertently scooped him up in a feeding frenzy. “It was completely black.”

Meanwhile, some fellow seamen were also skeptical.

“People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe,” a Bay State lobsterman, who has fished the area for 44 years, told The Post. “It’s a first-ever that this would happen.”

Packard was brought to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts, after his whale encounter.
Boston Globe via Getty Images

Humpback whales — which can grow to 40 tons — are toothless filter feeders who corral large schools of fish or other small marine life in a tight circle before taking massive gulps. Their throats are too narrow, however, to swallow a human, experts have said.

He continued: “For a guy to be in the middle of that giant school of fish corralled by a whale doesn’t make sense.”

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