Scientists Mount A Camera On A Hunting Great White Shark And The Footage Is Breath-taking!
There are daredevils who ride bulls and their brave performances are cheered across the USA. However, even the bravest scuba diver will never attempt to grab the fin of a great white shark and put a cam on it in an attempt to find out what these beasts do when they are not biting off surfers’ limbs off the coast of Sidney.
Finding Nemo (2003) depicts the great white as the ultimate pacifist and a true marine vegan. The creators of the 2004 computer-animated comedy A Shark’s Tale suggest they hang out together in gangs terrorizing the other inhabitants of the ocean. By contrast, Steven Spielberg’s shark in Jaws 1975 is man-eating sea monster.
According to UNILAD’s Emily Brown, Ph.D. student Oliver Jewell of Murdoch University in Australia and his colleagues are ready to offer the general public some priceless insights into the great whites’ world.
The intrepid researchers have managed to attach cameras to the fins in eight great white sharks so as to study how they hunt Cape fur seals off the coast of South Africa. The actual footage can be viewed here.
The actual footage can be viewed here.
So as not to cause any lasting discomfort to the sharks, the team of researched designed the cameras to stay on their fins for a set number of hours before popping off and being collected at the surface.
The fascinating footage shows the eight sharks hunting in kelp, something marine biologists hadn’t thought possible, as the sharks were considered too big to enter the kelp forests.
The sharks could also be observed navigating narrow channels as they were hunting for seals, while the seals respond by blowing bubbles at the predators.
Speaking about the sensational findings in a news report, Jewell commented:
“The film we collected gives us a new perspective on this species. We can see how they interact with their surroundings in real time, and they are able to make some pretty spectacular 180 degree turns in the kelp forest.
In the past, we would have to guess. We would track sharks to the edge of the kelp forest but then lose the signal. Being able to see what these fish do in this habitat helps to bring another layer of understanding to the behavior of these ocean giants.
However, the 28 hours of footage did not show the sharks actually killing any seals in the kelp forest, which may support findings that kelp provides refuge for seals,”
While it is truly fascinating to obtain a shark’s-eye view of the ocean, Jewell says further exploration of their hunting habits is needed before any general conclusions can be drawn.
