Drone technology has drastically changed surf photography.
It’s given the world a new perspective on waves, the surfers who ride them, and the various creatures that cruise around those surfers.
While drones provide epic aerial footage, they’ve also grown to serve another purpose, and that’s acting as shark alert systems.
In the surfer/shark clip above, it looks like the surfer got the hint.
The aerial footage above is from San Diego-based ocean photographer and shark advocate, Scott Fairchild.
Fairchild posted the clip above and captioned it:
“White Shark coming in quickly.”
The clip shows a woman sitting on her shortboard and waiting for a wave in San Diego waters as a big great white shark beelines it toward her.
At one point, she looks up right at the camera, not something we’ve seen in recent drone footage.
The shark gets super close to the surfer, then decides to change course and swims away from her.
It doesn’t look like she actually saw the shark.
Shark ignorance is bliss.
As usual, Fairchild engaged in the conversation in the comments section and shared some great white insight.
One viewer asked:
“Do you think the quick retreat is a bit of fear on the shark’s part?”
Fairchild replied:
“Not sure if they are ‘fearful’ in the way we are – but yes, I think there is some truth to that. Self-preservation comes first for animals and particularly Whites.”
Another follower wrote:
“Looks up, sees drone, looks around, continues to create splash.”
Fairchild responded:
“I see lots of splashing with little to no shark interest. Sure an initial splash can attract them (or make them leave actually like when a surfer crashes) but a non-prey item is a non-prey item. Yes, we shouldn’t splash around sharks, there’s no upside to doing that. But it does not mean an exploratory bite comes along with it either.”
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