Scientists in Florida were amazed when a camera they attached to a nurse shark – to track its movements – caught rare footage of a great white cruising by.
This was part of their work to learn more about different shark species by filming their movements using fin-mounted tags with cameras attached.
“One of the things that we’ve started doing recently is instrumenting these sharks with these camera tags so we can get a shark’s-eye-view of what they’re doing as they’re swimming around doing their daily activities,” says Dr. Stephen Kajiura, a professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).
They caught a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), popped a camera on it and let it go. The tags are designed to drop off after a certain amount of time so the researchers can retrieve them and watch the videos back.
When they got the footage, they were astounded.
“All of us were huddled behind my computer screen and everybody was like 'Oh my gosh! What is that?’” says marine biologist Genevieve Sylvester, who is studying shark behaviour and movement at FAU.
As the shark was swimming through Donny Boy Slipe Reef – a shallow artificial reef around 20 metres deep that is popular with scuba divers – it filmed a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). The two sharks were in the water together for around four minutes.
“So now you had a nurse shark taking a video of another shark that happened to be a great white,” says Kajiura. “What are the chances?!”
Video and image credit: Florida Atlantic University
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