As DroneDJ has noted in the past, the swiftness, agility, and powerful imaging tech drones provide have revolutionized the way surfing is photographed, affording spectators nearly first-person perspectives of what riders see. Now, a UAV has allowed one of the sport’s pros to film some arresting footage of his own – this time of fellow competitors being closely looked over by a very large shark.
The video was shot and uploaded by Nathan Florence, who at the time was on the beach watching heats in the world tour Corona Open competition at famed South African break Jeffereys Bay. Florence – the younger brother of champion (yes, twice is obligatory) John John Florence – got word of a shark swimming near the surfers in the lineup, and managed to get his posse’s drone up and out to the area quickly.
Read: New York expands drone fleets monitoring beaches amid rising shark fears
What the drone then located and filmed was a great white meandering among both pros and commingling amateurs. Thankfully – and similar to recent observations of sharks spotted around unsuspecting people – the submerged visitor wound up being almost as uninterested in nearby humans as it was determined to reenact scenes from Jaws.
In fact, during most of the nearly 11-minute video – viewers less interested in the crystal-clear waters of South Africa and broad gray back of the shark should cut to the section between 4:20 and 5:55 – the drone trails the big fish as it seeks spots uncluttered by the weird surface creatures in smelly black suits swearing at each other as they thrash around in front of swells.
In text accompanying the drone video, Florence explains he was alerted to the shark’s presence by younger surfers who’d just fled the water. In addition to locating and recording the uninvited finned wanderer, the pilot also lowers the UAV on a couple of occasions in attempts to alert people to the potential danger.
“We saw some groms come in fast (and) I asked them what the deal was, and they said they saw a huge white shark close enough to see its eyes swim by them,” Florence writes. “We put the drone up fast to see if it was there, sure enough it was swimming toward main pack of world tour surfers! We tried to warn the first guy with drone as we were far away. He noticed us and pulled his legs up but didn’t see (the) shark… We alerted people on beach who alerted surfers… (and) the shark cruised on his way up the coast.”
Recent drone videos of uneventful encounters between sharks and unaware surfers and swimmers have multiplied in recent years, leading experts to speculate people are actually far down on the creatures’ list of preferred meals. Attacks, that logic continues, may only occur in murky waters, or when other factors cause the predators to mistake humans for favored prey like seals.
Read: Jaws: Drone pilot films (lots of) human-shark encounters
As reassuring as that may be in theory, nobody is taking chances.
Drones are increasingly being used to patrol beaches as part of shark attack prevention measures, and even Florence’s video generates the expected anxiety at seeing a very large shark in proximity to a group of people. Especially agonizing are the drunk-guy-teetering-at-the-edge-of-a-cliff moments when surfers dangle their legs as the large, intimiating shape approaches.
Plus, there are other reasons why close encounters in South Africa are considered especially fraught. It was, after all, during a 2015 event at J-Bay spot pro surfer Mick Fanning was forced to fight off what otherwise might well have been a deadly shark strike.
Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash
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