Video: Scuba Diver Scooped Up in Bryde’s Whale’s Mouth Lives to Tell the Tale
OutdoorHub Reporters 03.11.19
A diver who wound up in a bryde’s whale’s mouth while diving off the coast of South Africa lived to tell the story, and joked that he did not have a “whale of a time,” but called the experience “a very special event.”
Rainer Schimpf, 51, was filming a wildlife documentary roughly 25 nautical miles off the southern coast of South Africa when a breaching whale broke the surface with its mouth open wide.
“It got dark and I felt some pressure on my hip,” Schimpf recalled. “Once I felt the pressure I instantly knew a whale had gripped me.”
Schimpf said he immediately held his breath in anticipation the whale would dive deep below the surface with him still trapped in its jaws. Instead, the whale turned over, opened its mouth and allowed Schimpf to escape.
While the encounter sounds entirely traumatic, Schimpf said “there’s no time for fear in a situation like that.”
“It happened extremely fast. From being on the surface and observing something, I became the inside man and suddenly was inside a whale.”
A witness of the harrowing scene, Claudia Weber-Gebert was adamant in pointing out the encounter was not an attack. She assumes the whale likely confused Schimpf for a dolphin.
“Whales are not man-eaters,” she stated. “It was not the fault of the whale. They are very sensitive, gentle giants. It was just an accident.”
So, is that comforting enough to get you in the ocean again? I would imagine being inside a bryde’s whale’s mouth would be enough to swear off diving forever, but Schimpf appears unfazed.
