Video-shooting drone alerts spear fisherman to nearing shark

Professional photographer Carlos Gauna has earned a great many followers with his drone videos of close encounters between people and sharks in the waters off Malibu. Now he’s gaining attention for using his UAV to allow a spear fisherman avoid a potentially toothy confrontation with a Great White coming his way.

DroneDJ has written before about the drone videos by Gauna, who goes by the “nom de gear” (sorry) of The Malibu Artist. Usually his films capture unnerving situations of surfers or swimmers pursuing their hobbies as one or several sharks meander excruciatingly close – albeit while remaining entirely passive. 

Indeed, Gauna’s numerous drone videos of inoffensive sharks at times just yards away from clueless humans have fed wider public understanding that attacks are actually rare exceptions to the rule – often the result of the big fish mistaking the identity of its prey. That footage also supported contentions that shark-human brushes occur far more frequently in SoCal waters than anybody previously imagined.

For example, a University of California Long Beach State study Gauna participated in concluded people taking to the waters in Santa Barbara and central San Diego counties wind up in proximity to sharks as much as 97% of the time. And most folk think the skin-shrinking cold of the water is demotivating…

This time, however, Gauna offers a video in which a shark may not only be preparing to take a bite out of an unfortunately close human, but also features the Malibu Artist himself getting involved by piloting his drone to warn the presumptive victim to the approaching threat.

While filming the creature cruising shallow waters looking for food, Gauna also caught sight of a spear fisherman as the hungry shark veered in his direction. Concerned about the Great White’s sudden interest while in feeding mode, the photographer lowered his drone in an attempt to alert the swimmer and his companions on a nearby boat to the potential danger.

To his chagrin, that only produced friendly waves at the craft rather than wigged-out enlightenment.

After a fast battery change, Gauna returned to the spot to repeat the visual warnings with his drone, capturing video of the spear fisherman lolling in the water just behind the boat as he did. After descending the UAV yet again to just above the shark, the crew finally spotted the Great White’s dorsal fin, resulting in their peer clambering back onboard with understandable urgency.

Gauna’s subsequent viewing of his drone video revealed the fishermen had hung their catch from the side of the boat, where the distressed and dying fish likely emitted stress and survival signals the Great White picked up. Using that theory, his view was reinforced that shark attacks on humans are almost always the result of misidentification in murky water, or situations in which people wind up thrusting themselves amid the predator’s logical prey.

Despite that constant in Gauna’s videos, it’s still wisest to haul tuchas out of the sea whenever spotting a large, submerged shadow, just in case.

Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash