The view of a 3,000-pound shark
Rare footage goes deep-sea diving
You ever wonder what it’s like to go for a ride on the back of a shark?
Cape Cod shark researchers recently shared some “incredible” video footage from the view of a nearly 3,000-pound great white shark.
When the scientists hooked the massive shark off South Carolina in December, the researchers were able to attach four tags on the apex predator — which they named “LeeBeth.”
Those tags included the first camera tag ever put on a white shark off the southeastern coast of the U.S.; camera tags show intimate glimpses into the lives of white sharks.
Now, after the researchers were able to retrieve the camera tag, the scientists are sharing a sneak peek of the unprecedented footage.
“This is the first glimpse we’ve gotten of a white shark in their overwintering grounds,” Atlantic White Shark Conservancy staff scientist Megan Winton told the Herald.
“A camera tag is such an amazingly transformative technology to see what they’re actually doing, instead of guessing what they’re doing based on their tracks,” she added. “It’s incredible… It’s like my childhood dream come true. Just riding on the back of a white shark for hours.”
The video footage shows the top of the head of the great white shark. The camera tag is inserted near the base of the dorsal fin, and detaches from the shark after several hours or days.
The researchers are able to get a glimpse into the shark’s behavior, their environment, dive pattern, and see small fish hanging next to the shark.
“People think they’re going to go crazy doing all sorts of things, but a lot of the video is them just swimming, not always doing incredibly exciting things,” Winton said of the shark. “To me, it’s so cool to see them in a different habitat, and see how adaptable these predators are.
“She didn’t eat anything or do anything like that, but we were just so excited that it worked,” she added of the camera tag. “It proves that we can do it down there.”
The other tags that the researchers put on LeeBeth include a satellite spot tag that people can follow on the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s Sharktivity app, and a pop-up satellite archival tag that will detach in 8 months.
LeeBeth, which researchers believe is between 25 and 30 years old, has traveled quite far since the scientists tagged her off Hilton Head. She recently pinged off the coast of Louisiana, and was near New Orleans on Mardi Gras.