Watch: Kayaker swallowed by humpback whale off Chile

Adrian Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahia El Aguila in the Strait of Magellan when a humpback whale surfaced, engulfing Adrian and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.

A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off the coast of Chile before quickly releasing him unharmed.

Adrian Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahia El Aguila in the Strait of Magellan when a humpback whale surfaced, engulfing Adrian and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.

Dell, just meters away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm.

“Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after his son was released from the whale’s mouth.

“I thought I was dead,” Adrian told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.” 

He described the “terror” of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing, fearing that the huge whale would hurt his father or that he would die in the freezing waters.

Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry.

“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” Adrian said.

After a few seconds in the water, Adrian managed to reach his father’s kayak and was helped back to shore uninjured.

Located about 1,600 miles south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is a major tourist attraction in Chilean Patagonia, known for adventure activities.

Its freezing waters pose a challenge for sailors, swimmers and explorers who attempt to cross it in different ways.

Although it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with minimums dropping to 4C and highs rarely exceeding 20C.

While whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years, and strandings have become a recurring issue in the last decade.