Seemingly for the first time, a shark has invaded another shark’s privacy by filming them without consent. I don’t think the shark doing the filming consented to having a camera strapped onto its fin, so really, it’s no surprise that humans are ultimately to blame here. We just love invading privacy.
According to marine biologists from Florida Atlantic University, the researchers were surprised when a camera attached to a nurse shark recorded a four-minute encounter with a great white off the coast of Boynton Beach, Florida. It wasn’t much of an encounter. It’s mostly just footage of the roughly 10-foot-long great white and the nurse shark swimming around each other. But it provides a fascinating little peek into the day-to-day life of sharks.
A Shark Wearing a Camera Accidentally Filmed a Great White Shark
The camera was a part of a research project studying shark behavior. What better way to get a sense of what they are up to than by strapping a GoPro to one? Researchers attached a lightweight, foam-based orange device to the shark’s dorsal fin, loaded with the aforementioned GoPro camera and various sensors to take measurements as the shark swam through the relatively shallow waters.
The tag eventually popped off, washing ashore near Delray Beach several miles south of the initial application point where the researchers found it sitting just a few inches away from fresh beach tractor tire marks that could have possibly crushed the device, or, at the very least, putting the durability of a GoPro to the ultimate test.
The researchers finally looked over the video; there it was, a great white shark just hanging out around the nurse shark as both creatures had other fish clinging to them. It’s a bit more than just a cool, rare encounter. The footage is going to help the researchers better understand how different shark species interact, and also how they use South Florida’s vast network of artificial reefs.
Researchers plan to tag more sharks, including lemon sharks and great hammerheads.
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