What If You Were Swallowed by a Whale?

something is lurking in the water do you see it [Music] close calls like this happen with whales more often than you might expect and although the people in these videos got away relatively unscathed there's no denying that they were just meters away from being a whale's lunch but what would happen if they hadn't been so lucky could a human body survived being swallowed by a whale has it ever happened before this is what if and here's what would happen if you were swallowed by a whale if you've never seen a whale up close it's hard to comprehend just how monstrous they can really be to put it in perspective the blue whale is the largest animal on the planet its tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant and it can fit anywhere between 400 and 500 people in its mouth but we wouldn't have to worry about one of these guys swallowing us anytime soon because their Anatomy makes it nearly impossible instead we should be more concerned with their smaller cousins sperm whales in 1891 reports emerged that a man had been swallowed by one of these whales and although he lived to tell the tale he would never be the same again according to the story James Bartley was swallowed when a whale attacked his ship and he wasn't retrieved until the following day when the crew found and killed the whale they quickly brought it on board their ship and cut it open revealing an unconscious but very alive James Bartley his face and arms were bleached white and he was blind all thanks to the stomach acids of the whale however as the years went by people started poking holes in this story and questioned whether James had really been swallowed by a whale I mean wouldn't the stomach acids do more damage than just bleaching his skin well with the power of science we took a closer look and we quickly discovered that if you get swallowed by a whale coming back out with shiny white skin would be the least of your worries okay so the first thing you'd have to worry about once you were swallowed would be getting shredded to pieces by the sperm whales impressive set of teeth each tooth is approximately 20 centimeters long that's about the length of an average chef's knife and whales have anywhere from 40 to 50 of these let's say you're lucky enough to make it past all of them next you'd begin your descent down the throat not only would it be dark and slimy down here but you also find it hard to breathe due to the lack of oxygen and an increase in methane gas as the whales throat muscles constricted in and out to help force you down you'd also start to feel hydrochloric acid beginning to eat away at your skin I know what you're thinking we just got into this whale and James Bartley's story already seems pretty fishy well you're not wrong but what would be the fun in stopping now so next you'd be dropped into the first and largest of the whales for stomachs you'd probably be in there for a while but on the bright side you might have some light in the form of a bioluminescent squid or tube being knocked on after your arrival sperm whales love neon flying squid you'd better enjoy this brief light show because after this you'd just be tossed from one stomach to the next with the acids breaking down almost all of your body until you're just a bunch of bones being unceremoniously ejected from the whale's anus so yeah it's pretty safe to say that there's no way you could be swallowed whole by a whale and live to tell the tale sorry James you may have been able to fool people in the 1890s but we're on to you now as vast as they are and as monstrous as they might seem to us whales actually have no interest in eating humans and if they could talk they would probably make a point of telling us that but that's a topic for another what if [Music]

Channel: What If

Views: 15,822,677

Keywords: what if, what happens if, scifi, science documentary, what if scenario, biggest questions in science, what if you get swallowed by a whale, whale documentaries, are whales dangerous, whale attacks, james bartley, man who was swallowed by a whale and survived, killer whale, sperm whale, how to survive a whale attack, biggest whale in the world, national geographic, swallowed by a whale, biggest whale, California, kayak, Cape Cod, lobsterman, lobster diver

Id: 5JBMvUMJuyQ

Length: 4min 42sec (282 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AGameofTrolls]

So, the Bible story about the whale is BS.....

[u/Snowfizzle]

that really didn’t tell me if i whale could accidentally swallow me. like those folks just chilling on the surface.. if the whale swallowed them.. would it spit them out? or are they just SOL?

[u/garrypig]

I hate videos like this where they make the most generalized statements sound like the most fascinating shit of the year...

[u/Father_Burns]

Ok Jonah, not all of us are lucky enough to be vored by a whale