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From: The Telegraph > News
Whale tries to 'swallow' South African tour operator in feeding frenzy
Rainer Schimpf in the mouth of the Bryde's Whale
Credit: Heinz Toperczer / Barcroft Images
by Victoria Ward
8 March 2019 • 7:04pm
When Jonah was swallowed by a whale it was three days and three nights before he was finally spat back out, alive, on a beach.
Fortunately for Rainer Schimpf, 51, who similarly found himself trapped in the jaws of a huge whale, his ordeal was of rather less biblical proportions.
The South African dive tour operator has described the moment everything went dark as his head and torso were suddenly swallowed by a Bryde’s Whale mid feeding frenzy as it gulped down everything in its path.
“There was no time for fear or any emotion,” he told the Telegraph.
“I knew instantly what had happened. I knew that a whale had come and taken me and I I instinctively held my breath, assuming that it would dive down again and spit me out somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean.”
Mr Schimpf had been snorkeling with two colleagues some 25 nautical miles off the coast near Port Elizabeth Harbour.
The experienced marine conservationist and photographer was attempting to film a sardine run, when gannets, penguins, seals, dolphins, whales and sharks work together to gather the fish into bait balls.
Keen to get the best shots, he had plunged into the centre of a swirling ball of fish.
When the sea suddenly churned up, the group realised that something strange was happening. ...
Read more at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... jaws-spat/