A videographer in Western Australia was amazed to see a critically endangered wedgefish leading a group of fish swimming just 200 metres from shore.
Back in 2024, Wildlife videographer Jake Mason, founder of Return To The Ocean, was flying his drone in Shark Bay, Western Australia, when he came across the unlikely entourage.
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“At first, I didn’t know what I was looking at,” he said in a Instagram post sharing the footage. “It was a ball of something moving along.”
As he looked closer, he started to make out different types of fish within the group. "I noticed it was a school of juvenile golden trevally, several cobia, and possibly a sharksucker or two,” he said. Sharksucker is another name for suckerfish, or remora.
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To top it all off, they were all following the lead of a very special – and incredibly rare – creature. “The highlight is the giant critically endangered whitespotted wedgefish leading the pack,” said Mason.
Mason flew his drone over the curious collection of creatures for around 10 minutes until he had to leave. At each turn, the fish followed the leader “move for move”.
“This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen while flying my drone in search of wildlife,” he added.
Image and video credit: Jake Mason @jakemasondiving and Return to the Ocean @returntotheocean.com
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