Seal photographed in the mouth of a humpback whale

SEATTLE (AP) — It’s a good thing seals aren’t on a humpback whale’s menu.

A whale watcher’s photo captured an apparently stunned seal in the mouth of a humpback whale after the giant marine mammal accidentally swallowed it in the waters off Anacortes, Washington, last Thursday.

The food mixing began when a Blue Kingdom Whale and Wildlife Tours boat spotted birds flying over a school of fish and a humpback whale swimming toward it, Capt. Tyler McKeen said. He said the humpback then used a lunge technique, in which the whale opens its mouth wide and takes in small fish and water. But instead of staying underwater to filter through his whalebones, he surfaced and began opening and closing his mouth.

After the whale submerged again, photos and videos were checked by whale watchers.

“It only took a few seconds for everyone to pull the frames up and zoom in,” McKeen said. ‘Then we saw the seal. It was a fun, funny moment for everyone. I mean, it probably wasn’t that funny to the seal.”

A photo by Brooke Casanova shows the seal, which was also believed to have been hunting the fish, emerging from the floor of the whale’s mouth. McKeen recorded phone video of the seal being washed away.

“I suspect this situation probably happens every now and then just because there are a lot of other things that these fish eat,” McKeen said.

Humpback whales visit the Salish Sea, the inland waters between British Columbia and Washington State, during their migrations. Humpback whales were hunted in these waters, causing them to become locally extinct, but over the past 25 years their numbers have recovered and they are now routinely spotted on whale watching tours, McKeen said.

He added that the whale that accidentally swallowed the seal is known as ‘Zillion’.

This story has been updated to correct part of the whale watching company’s name to Wildlife from Wildfire and the name of the whale.