Wait, he was doing what when he got gulped by a whale
Provincetown's lobster-diving Jonah and plant of the week
This week, a wildlife story from my area made international headlines. “Lobster diver opens up after being eaten and spit out by a whale,” blares the Today Show. (I mean, if he was eaten, he wouldn’t be talking to the Today Show, but you know I don’t like to quibble. One could argue whether he was even truly swallowed or gulped.)
As you might have heard, Michael Packard was diving for lobsters off Provincetown’s Herring Cove Beach in shallow water when a feeding humpback whale scooped him into its mouth. The whale, probably looking to eat nearby sand lance and with an esophagus too narrow for a great ape, soon recognized its mistake. It shook its mouth and surfaced after what the diver guesses was 30-40 seconds. The humpback opened its mouth and Packard tumbled out. His crewmate spotted him and pulled him aboard. He had suffered “soft tissue damage” but no serious injuries. Cue news cameras.
But the story behind the story is: what’s the deal with someone diving for lobsters in Massachusetts? I’ve never heard of a commercial New England lobster boat putting people in the water on purpose. Usually that’s what you don’t want to happen.
A humpback whale feeding on sand lance on Stellwagen Bank, east of Boston, and a herring gull living on the edge. Photo Credit: Jeremy Winn/NOAA
Diving for lobsters is more common in the spiny lobster industry in Florida and especially in Central American fisheries exporting to U.S. markets. Spiny lobsters live in warmer, less turbulent waters than New England’s American lobsters, meaning that diving is a plausible way to catch them. But it’s still a dangerous job, often requiring dives of 150 feet or more to coral reef crevices. A New York Times story on Indigenous spiny lobster divers in Nicaragua reported that many people have died and hundreds have been paralyzed following decompression sickness. Something to consider if you see spiny lobster on the menu.
But diving for American lobsters commercially is pretty rare in the Northeast. Using traps (or “pots,” to use the industry term) has been more efficient and safer for a long time. The biggest threat to divers in Provincetown waters is probably the powerful and fickle undercurrents that can drag you miles out to sea—it has happened to Packard, and one of his colleagues died that way. And there are plenty of great white sharks. It has to be said.
Packard thinks he might be the last commercial lobster diver in Provincetown, which could easily be true. It seems like a bit of a novelty. Plenty of scuba hobbyists dive for lobsters and other shellfish recreationally around here, but that’s pretty different from diving for your daily bread/lobster.
Provincetown, at Cape Cod’s tip, is a unique place where deeper ocean currents pass near the land, bringing whales, large fish (sharks), seals, open-ocean bird species, and more within sight of beaches (here’s a little more from me about birds and whales there.) That makes it a great place to visit—but for my own preference, not a great place to swim.
The other thread here is that such a … close encounter … with a humpback is a testament to the species’ persistence through decades of industrial-scale whaling. About 900 humpback whales migrate to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary east of Boston every spring, staying there to feed on sand lance and other favorite foods so they have enough stored energy for the breeding season in late fall. Provincetown is just a short trip for a whale summering in Stellwagen. I’m glad that Packard is okay, and I’m glad that we have humpbacks in coastal waters despite all the challenges they’ve faced. I’m hoping to see one in July—from the outside, ideally.
Flower of the week: Spiderwort
May-June’s blue/purple flower season continues with spiderwort (Tradescantia) opening its flowers in the morning and closing them in the afternoon heat. This one is a planted flower in our neighborhood, but there are plenty of wild-growing spiderworts out there, such as Virginia spiderwort/spider lily (Tradescantia virginiana), which is usually deep indigo like the one above, or Ohio spiderwort (T. ohiensis), typically a paler blue than Virginia spiderwort, both found throughout the central and eastern U.S. Plants in the genus are unmistakable with their three-petaled flowers and long, grass-like leaves with parallel veins. They grow in a wide variety of soils, but I have the best luck finding them in fields and fencerows.
The spiderworts belong to a family, Commelinaceae, that mostly consists of tropical species. Another flower from the family you might recognize is dayflower (Commelina communis), introduced from east and southeast Asia and blooming later in the summer.
Spiderworts can be cooked, and some Native Americans have historically used them to treat stomachache and other conditions. The plant’s English name supposedly comes from the way the angled long leaves make the plant look like a “squatting spider.” I usually don’t have spiders on the mind, so I doubt that comparison would ever have occurred to me.
Questions or comments? Send it to the mailbag: possum.notes.substack@gmail.com
Possum Notes is a weekly newsletter about wildlife and landscapes around where I live. It’s produced on occupied Wampanoag and Narragansett land.