Sometimes the ocean’s secrets are hidden away in mysterious deep waters but, on other occasions, they can appear right before your eyes.
The latter was the case when wildlife photographer Jack Grant, founder of Unwind Underwater.com, left his GoPro filming a thriving reef in French Polynesia.
“I was snorkelling inside the lagoon at Tahanea in French Polynesia on an outgoing tide and swam past a coral bommie with a lot of fish life around it,” says Grant, who shared the footage on Instagram.
Hoping to film the natural activity of this marine life without a human nearby to potentially disturb them, he put his GoPro down on a rock and left it filming.
While the camera was unattended, an inquisitive porcupinefish drifts past the camera – just inches away – in an adorable close-up photobomb. “Truly a master of disguise!” Grant comments cheekily under the post.
“This porcupinefish spotted the camera and swam right up to investigate it,” he says, adding the tongue-in-cheek heading “can you spot the porcupinefish?” to the footage. “What a funny fish,” he adds.
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This wasn’t the only charming sighting Grant has enjoyed. His hidden camera has also captured red snapper, cleaner wrasse and a whitetip reef shark.
Grant has set up Unwind Underwater so other people around the world can enjoy his longer videos, relax and destress. “I set up my camera to film a beautiful section of reef and swim away, so what you are watching is the ocean carrying on without me,” he writes on the website. “No narration, no chasing, just fish going about their day.”
Image and video credit: Jack Grant, Unwind Underwater
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