The Greatest Fish Story Ever Told

Hailed as the “greatest fish story ever told,” the award-winning documentary, “In the Whale,” is the true-life story of Cape Cod fisherman Michael Packard. Directed by David Abel, the film makes its Long Island premiere on Saturday, March 2, at 7 p.m. at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.

“In the Whale” tells the story of Packard, who, in the dangerous profession of diving lobsterman, 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, the idiosyncratic, isolated community where they grew up at the tip of the Cape. 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. 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.

In an experience of biblical proportions, Packard was engulfed by a humpback whale, caught in the watery cavity of its massive mouth. After some 30 seconds of a pitch-black captivity, in which he expected to die, he was spit out, fins first, to the surface, where Mayo and another fisherman rescued him.

“Michael Packard’s incredible survival is a testament to the unpredictable nature of life. “In the Whale” is a voyage into the miraculous,” said Julienne Penza-Boone, WHBPAC executive director.

The screening at WHBPAC will feature a Q&A and discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and filmmaker David Abel, a New York native. Abel is a reporter who covers fisheries and environmental issues for The Boston Globe. His work has also won an Edward R. Murrow Award, the Ernie Pyle Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting.

Abel’s last film, “Entangled,” won a Jackson Wild award, known as the Oscars of nature films. It also won Best Feature Film at the International Wildlife Film Festival, Best Conservation Film at the International Ocean Film Festival, and the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. In 2022, it was nominated for a national Emmy award. Abel also co-directed and produced “Sacred Cod,” a film about the collapse of the iconic cod fishery in New England, which was broadcast by the Discovery Channel in the spring of 2017. He also directed and produced two films about the Boston Marathon bombings, which were broadcast to national and international audiences, on BBC World News, Discovery Life, and Pivot. Abel, who began learning to make films as a Nieman fellow at Harvard University, is “In the Whale's” director, producer, writer, and director of photography.

Tickets are $23 at whbpac.org or 631-288-1500. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center is t 76 Main Street, Westhampton Beach.