“It’s a strenuous job,” said charter boat fisherman Dave “Spider” Gibson, standing on Provincetown’s MacMillan Pier Friday afternoon. Packard thinks he may be the last lobster diver in Provincetown.
#Cape ann whale watch free
The rescuers that found the remaining five passengers after two nights in the jungle said they wouldn’t have survived another night.Ĭape Cod fishing: Cape Cod lobstermen get free gear to protect endangered right whales Packard sustained multiple serious injuries to his abdomen and upper body. Ten years ago, while traveling in Costa Rica, he was a passenger in a small plane that crashed in the jungle, killing the pilot, co-pilot and a passenger. Monomoy Island: Wisconsin man's inaugural sail left him 'lucky to be alive' off Chatham Michael Packard also survived a plane crash Sharks and seals: Here's what you need to know about the animals off Cape Cod For years, he was an abalone diver on the West Coast in an area with great white sharks that have a history of attacking divers he lost some friends to the predators. Packard has had his share of close calls. He said he’d return to diving as soon as he was healed. Packard was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon with what he described as “a lot of soft tissue damage” but no broken bones. “For that to happen to him, you can be sure he did everything he was supposed to do.”
“Michael (Packard) is a smart guy and an exceptional diver,” Stormy Mayo said. Packard crewman Josiah Mayo is Stormy Mayo’s son.Ĭlimate Change: A whale of a reminder: Nantucket sculpture raises awareness of ocean littering dangers In those places I’m not aware of a single incident of people having problems with them,” Mayo said. “People direct dive on them (humpbacks) in the tropics, not here.
#Cape ann whale watch professional
It requires a federal permit for professional photographers and researchers to get close to whales underwater, but there are areas of the world where it is generally allowed. "So many things would have had to happen to end up in the path of a feeding whale." How was a man swallowed by a whale?Ĭharles “Stormy” Mayo, a senior scientist and whale expert at the Center for Coastal Studies, agreed it was likely an accidental encounter. "It is not something I have heard happening before," Robbins said of the incident Friday. He sees them all the time out there,” said Cynthia Packard. A Provincetown Fire Department ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital. Mayo picked him up, called by radio to shore and sped back to the Provincetown pier.
Then the whale flung her brother back into the sea. “There was all this action at the top of the water,” Packard said Mayo told her. Packard said Mayo saw the whale burst to the surface, and that he initially thought it was a great white shark. Packard’s sister, Cynthia Packard, spoke with crewman Josiah Mayo, who relayed some of the details to her. Watch humpback whales get rescued: Whale rescuers free humpback from fishing gear near Stellwagen Bank, MAįirst Light Boatworks: Adventurer Guirec Soudée set to cross Atlantic from Chatham to home in France “I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” said Packard, who lives in Wellfleet. He estimated he was in the whale for 30 to 40 seconds before the whale finally surfaced. Outfitted with scuba gear, he struggled and the whale began shaking its head so that Packard could tell he didn’t like it. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys - they’re 12 and 15 years old.” A man was swallowed by a whale: How do we know it is true? “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. “I was completely inside it was completely black,” Packard said.