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By Pandora Dewan
Senior Science Reporter
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A fisherman has described his astonishing tale of survival after being thrown overboard by a suspected whale strike.
Flavio Barceló, from Venezuela, swam for 15 hours to reach dry land after the incident, which happened in the middle of the night off the coast of Ecuador. Unfortunately, his two crew mates—Eriberto Holguín Rivera and Jhon Palma López—did not survive.
The three friends had set sail from the port of San Mateo in Ecuador on the evening of July 4 to fish for Corvina, local newspaper El Diario reported.
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"That night my partner, who knew him as Silo (Heriberto), told me that as I was going ahead I should be on the lookout for a whale or boat," Barceló told local media outlet Extra. "We were advancing and I told him: 'Watch out for a whale.' But it was too late. We hit [the whale] and fell into the water."
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The incident took place at about 11 p.m. that night.
According to Barceló, he and his crew mates were thrown from the boat into the water, leaving the out-of-control vessel to motor on alone.
The trio tried to swim towards the shores of the city of Manta in the hopes that someone would help them. "At four in the morning, Jhon Palma drowned, he could not resist," Carmen Rivera, a relative of Eriberto Rivera, told Extra. "He [Barceló] said that they were bringing the body, but at about 08:00 on Wednesday Eriberto could no longer resist."
The whale species involved in the encounter is still unknown, but one of the most commonly encountered species in San Mateo at this time of year is the humpback whale. Humpback whales have one of the longest migrations of any mammal, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and may swim up to 5,000 miles from their tropical breeding grounds to their cooler summer feeding grounds.
According to the International Whaling Commission, the whales can often be spotted at this time of year, from June to October, along the coast of Ecuador as they travel towards Antarctica.
Unfortunately, vessel strikes with these species are not uncommon. A study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science in 2021 found that humpback whales were the most commonly hit whale species in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Unfortunately, these interactions can have tragic results for both the animals and humans involved.
At 4 p.m. local time on July 5, Barceló finally reached the harbor of San Lorenzo parish. He was transferred to a health center for a medical examination in which doctors found water and phlegm in his lungs.
"Thank God for giving me another life, I was born again," he said.
Meanwhile, the families of Rivera and Palma have requested the Ecuadorian navy help them find the bodies of their missing relatives.
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