Fact Check: Did a humpback whale swallow two women in California? Video debunked 

A video, shot on November 2020, which shows two women kayaking and suddenly having a close encounter with a humpback whale, has recently gone viral on the internet. The point of contention surrounding the video, shot at the Avila Beach in California is that, the two women, who are seen coming dangerously close to the whale, were in fact swallowed by it.

Although the video has been on the internet for a while now, it is spreading like wildfire lately, which has prompted people to question the truth behind the humpback whale incident.

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Did the humpback whale swallow the women? Truth debunked

Floating online since the end of 2020, the viral video shows a humpback whale emerging from the water, throwing the two women off their kayak. While many are circulating this video in pure shock, others are questioning the authenticity of the video. Many shared a Facebook post that said:

“A humpback whale swallows two girls in California.”

The details were also given in the post, which said that off the coast of California, two girls who were kayaking were swallowed by a whale that was hunting a school of fish. The post gave a description noting that the whale emerged out of nowhere, and the two girls fell off their kayak, and were swallowed by the whale in a split second.

What comes next is even more shocking. The post also claims that the whale spat them out in just a few seconds, and there was no casuality at all.

While the video is real, the truth and the claim behind it is debatable. It so appears that the video was shot from such an angle that made it seem as if the two women landed in the whale’s mouth. However, they both just landed in the water, instead of becoming a snack for the whale.

The truth is also debunked by another Twitter post shared by Melissa Newman on November 3, 2020, which showed the same instance from a different angle that made it clear that the women were definitely not swallowed.

In another video shared by Melissa, it can be seen from a distance that the whale came and pushed the women into the water, but did not eat them up.

What exactly happened was that, the two women were peddling when the whale appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly, several people who were in the vicinity or on the beach, shot the rare sight which eventually helped bust the claim of the women being swallowed.

Moreover, it is a known fact that humpback whales do not swallow humans; this is due to the fact that though they have a huge mouth, it is still impossible for them to swallow humans. In reality, the throat of the whale is the size of a human fist, which definitely cannot fit an entire human.