Lowell Lecture
Screening of In the Whale – The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told
Date & Time
April 26, 2024 at 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Location
Modern Theatre
Suffolk Unviersity
525 Washington Street Boston, MA 02111
Driving Directions
Speaker(s)
Filmmaker David Abel
Presenting Organization
Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University
Topics
Contact
Susan H. Spurlock (sspurlock@suffolk.edu, 617 504-7297)
IN THE WHALE is a feature-length film about arguably the greatest fish story ever told, though this one is true. It's the account of a man who was engulfed by a humpback whale, caught in the watery cavity of its massive mouth. After some 30 seconds in a pitch-black captivity, in which he expected to die, he was spit out, fins first, to the surface. In the shark-filled waters off Cape Cod, Michael Packard has long tempted fate. For several months a year, Packard and his longtime mate, Josiah Mayo, cast off nearly every morning around dawn and navigate through the half-light to their diving grounds off Provincetown, Packard buckles on his scuba tank and plunges into the cold waters to hunt on the seafloor. As the region’s last-remaining commercial lobster diver, the 57-year-old father has had his share of harrowing experiences, which include close encounters with great whites, nearly drowning, and having to pull up the body of a fellow diver. He even survived a plane crash in the jungles of Costa Rica, where he ran a charter fishing business. But what happened to him on a routine dive during a clear June morning was something he never imagined possible, and many around the world refused to believe.