humpback whale feeding

Rainer Schimpf is an environmental defender, experienced diver, and photographer. Schimpf, 51 years old, is not a beginner, has 20 years of experience and was rewarded several times and is aware of the dangers to which it is exposed.

While filming a sardine run off the coast of South Africa, he suffered an unforgettable experience. He spent a few seconds inside a Bryde’s whale, this cetacean measured 15 meters and weighed about 25 tons. He swallowed the diver wrongly while feeding on such sardines in South Africa.

How did that happen?

Recall that the whales, like all whales, are carnivorous but belong to the family of baleen whales, which have beards in exchange for teeth.

Rorqual whales feed by gulping enormous mouthfuls of prey and water. As its mouth fills, a rorqual’s throat grooves expand and its mouth cavity balloons outward. Then the whale brings its jaws together and contracts the throat grooves, forcing water out.



Rainer Schimpf tell us…

Rainer Schimpf tells us “I had started shooting dolphins, sharks, gannets, penguins and cormorants that fed on sardines when, coming from the bottom, a Bryde’s whale comes up suddenly” and added “I felt pressure around my waist, and knew immediately what was happening “” It was only a few seconds, until the whale realized its mistake and opened its mouth to spit. “

The Schimpf’s wife, Silke, and a photographer attended with fear of the incident and documented the scene. Watching the filming you can see only the two legs of Rainer Schimpf outside the mouth of the whale. Once confirmed that he had not broken any bones or hurt himself, he returned to the water.

“Predators like whales or sharks attack their prey and many times our visibility is very limited,” says Schimpf. He adds “Our determination to guarantee the environment the greatest attention and protection remains intact.” “If I should be born again, I’d like to do it like a whale.”

A modern Jonah?

To many people, this amazing event recalled the biblical passage of the prophet Jonas. The Bible says that the prophet Jonah spent three days inside a cetacean. Rainer Schimpf had the same experience, but only a few seconds inside a Bride’s whale.

In the case of Jonah, connoisseurs of the subject claim that to house a human inside, it could be a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) or a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). The two feed passively, filtering zooplankton, small fish and invertebrates at a rate of 2,000 tons of water per hour.

Credits: Matt Martyniuk [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

In the previous image you can see both the comparison of the size of the whale shark with a human being and in the following one as the opening of the mouth of the peregrine shark could swallow a whole person very easily.

Credits: Greg Skomal / NOAA Fisheries Service [Public domain]

If you want to see and hear the testimony of Schimpf, let follow the link. These images have already been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.



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