'This is how you die': One year later, Massachusetts diver recalls escape from whale
Warning: Contains graphic language
WELLFLEET, Mass. — A year after being gargled by a whale and surviving to tell the tale, Michael Packard is doing fine.
The veteran lobster diver returned to work about three weeks after his incredible interlude in the mouth of a humpback off of Provincetown, Massachusetts, an event that made headlines around the world.
Every workday he is back in the water, despite the fact that on June 11, 2021, he was rudely interrupted below the surface by a cruising cetacean. You might think he'd be looking over his shoulder, thinking about that fateful day.
"No, not really," said Packard. "In my occupation, I always have some trepidation before I get in the water. It crosses my mind, but I can't focus on it. I just shoot it out of my mind. I was like, 'this is your job,' and I get down and I don't even think about it."
Packard kindly hosted a Cape Cod Times, a part of the Paste BN Network, reporter and photographer at his beautiful home, off a back road in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on a recent sunny afternoon. The gardens were lush, the mosquitoes weren't too bad and his new compost project was going well. All the little lovely things that make life a pleasant ride were there to see.
What happened last year?
But for Packard, that ride almost came to a screeching halt a year ago. And in an emotional interview, he spoke about what happened that day.
"It was just a normal day for me. I go out right at sunrise. I get in the water and I did two dives. I usually do about 30-40 minute dives. And then the third dive, I dove down and I was descending to the bottom. And I was just about to the bottom.
'Swallowed by the whale': Lobster diver caught by humpback whale off Massachusetts beach
"And I just got slammed. Just like a freight train … and then all of a sudden it went black. And water was just rushing, rushing around me, and black, and I could feel pressure on my whole body. And I was just moving through the water like wicked fast. And I'm like 'what the f---.'
"And instantly I knew I was in a whale, not a shark … and then my regulator (breathing device) fell out … And I put it back in my mouth. And I'm in there.
"And I'm thinking to myself, 'This is it, Michael. This is it. This is how you die.' And I was a 100% sure that … I wouldn't get out of this situation. It was a done deal, and I thought about my kids, and my wife.
"And then he (the whale) started going up. All of a sudden it just got to the surface and he started shaking his head and getting all erratic … and then boom! Packard flew out of the whale's mouth.
"I'm floating, cuz my suit is like a dry suit and I didn't have time to deflate it when I was coming up, because the air expands, of course. So here I am … this big blimp on the surface. Thank god I kept breathing, so I didn't get the bends, or whatever. My lungs didn't explode. I was breathing and he came up at the right ascent. But there I was just floating on the surface."
Costa Rican plane crash more traumatic
Packard was bruised and had ligament damage to his knee. Plus, he had to wrap his mind around what had happened. But he said he doesn't suffer any lingering trauma from the whale-mouth episode. Perhaps because he barely escaped death about 20 years ago, when he was in a plane crash in Costa Rica.
"What haunts me more is my plane crash," said Packard. "That's more haunting, because this was so quick … the plane crash, I sat in the jungle for three days … punctured lung and four broken ribs, 180 stitches in my head, cut Achilles … I probably would have lasted another day, so I had a lot of time to think about my mortality, so that was definitely more PTSD than this."
Packard was asked if his near-death experiences had given him a different outlook on life.
"I've heard people that have had life/death experiences and how it's changed their lives and I don't know, given them a new outlook on life, and like it's a gift and all that, and I didn't get any of that," he said. "I'm still the same old guy."
Maybe there's some kind of secret in that, though. After all, Packard was sipping a cold beer on a splendid Cape Cod afternoon, still living his life, his way. I asked him what it was like to have an experience that few others in the world could likely claim.
"Well. that's the thing about me," said Packard. "I've always tried to be not one of the masses. And do something different, you know? No matter what I've done, I've always tried to just not be like everybody else. And in my fishing and in my life, and just how I deal with life, and then this experience happened … it keyed in on me and it's like, 'Well, there it is. Oh my god, you wanted something different? You got it buddy.'"
Packard said he has been working on a film about the whale episode with Boston Globe staffer and filmmaker David Abel. "He's just about done," said Packard. "It was incredible the amount of work."
One thing still sticks in his craw, so to speak: folks who doubt his story. His thoughts on that?
"You say to the doubters that they don't know Michael Packard. I live in this town and everyone, even my enemies, believe me. That I don't make up stories."
Follow Eric Williams on Twitter: @CapeCast.