Swallowed By A Whale?

Could a human survive being swallowed by a whale? Has it ever occurred before? Let's delve into the possibilities and explore what would happen if you were swallowed by a whale. If you've never had the opportunity to see a whale up close, it can be challenging to comprehend their immense size. To put it into perspective, the blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, has a tongue that weighs as much as an elephant and can accommodate anywhere between 400 to 500 people in its mouth. However, we need not worry about these colossal creatures swallowing us anytime soon, as their anatomy makes it nearly impossible. Instead, we should be more concerned about their smaller relatives, sperm whales.

In 1891, reports emerged of a man who was allegedly swallowed by a sperm whale. The story goes that James Bartley was engulfed when a whale attacked his ship. He was not rescued until the following day when the crew discovered and killed the whale. Upon cutting it open, they found James Bartley inside, unconscious but alive. His face and arms had turned white, seemingly bleached by the whale's stomach acids, and he had lost his sight. However, over the years, doubts arose, and people questioned whether James had truly been swallowed by a whale. Wouldn't the stomach acids cause more extensive damage than just bleaching his skin. With the aid of scientific exploration, we can delve deeper into this matter and uncover the potential realities of being swallowed by a whale.

First and foremost, if you were swallowed by a whale, your initial concern would be surviving the encounter with the sperm whale's formidable set of teeth. These teeth can reach approximately 20 centimeters in length, similar to an average chef's knife, and the whale possesses around 40 to 50 of them. Let's assume you miraculously manage to evade these teeth. Your descent down the whale's throat would be accompanied by darkness and slime, making it difficult to breathe due to the scarcity of oxygen and an increase in methane gas. As the whale's throat muscles contract, facilitating your downward passage, you would also experience the corrosive effects of hydrochloric acid on your skin. At this point, one may question the veracity of James Bartley's story, given the seemingly minimal damage caused solely by bleaching of the skin. However, let's proceed further and explore what lies ahead.

After passing through the throat, you would enter the first and largest of the whale's stomachs. Here, you would likely remain for a considerable period, and if fortune smiles upon you, you might catch a glimpse of light in the form of a bioluminescent squid or luminescent organisms present in the whale's stomach. Sperm whales have a penchant for neon flying squid, so you may witness a brief light show. However, this spectacle would be short-lived as you are subsequently tossed from one stomach to another, subjected to the corrosive acids that break down almost every part of your body. Eventually, you would be reduced to a mere collection of bones, unceremoniously expelled from the whale's anus.

Hence, it is safe to assert that survival following being swallowed whole by a whale is highly improbable. Apologies, James Bartley, but while you may have managed to deceive people in the 1890s, we are now aware of the implausibility of your account. As colossal and formidable as whales may appear, they hold no interest in consuming humans. If given the ability to communicate, they would likely emphasize this point. However, the topic of whale-human interactions and communication is a fascinating one for another discussion. Thank you for reading!