If you're looking for a shark, you're not going to find him on the land
January 25, 2017 8:07 PM   Subscribe

Beautiful drone footage of surfers and the nearby sharks they are oblivious to. (SLYT, music is the only audio; no need for sound). There's a news story about the video with a little more detail too.
posted by lollusc (34 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Remind me to never go in the ocean again.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:10 PM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]


music is the only audio

More tuba!
posted by thelonius at 8:13 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Pretty sure the fish that rolls at 1:15 is a tarpon.

Still, not a surprising video, having grown up in Florida. People would be amazed at how little sharks, alligators, and other "scary" creatures care about them.
posted by paulcole at 8:17 PM on January 25, 2017 [8 favorites]


Being a shark sure seems lonely.
posted by beccaj at 8:27 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Unexpected squee from the related links at page bottom: Australian diver forms years-long friendship with cuddle-loving shark
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:28 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]


People would be amazed at how little sharks, alligators, and other "scary" creatures care about them.

It's just, the times when they do care....
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [17 favorites]


If you're looking for a shark, you're not going to find him on the land

But now she feels like a remora
'Cause the school's still close at hand.
Just behind the reef are the big white teeth
Of the sharks that can swim on the land.

Can't you feel 'em circlin', honey?
Can't you feel 'em schoolin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
And you're the only bait in town.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:39 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]


This is good but even drones can't see the glass shark.

He get you down in that bad DARK water. Glass shark GOIN COME. You bettah swim faster!
posted by JDHarper at 8:42 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


Surfers caught breaks, but sharks didn't.
posted by rtha at 8:45 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


One time I was able to sit up on a cliff looking down at a swimming beach, and it was amazing how many large things there were in the water, all keeping a bit of distance from the people swimming who were clearly unaware of all the big, toothy animals swimming a few feet away.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:44 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


Makes me wonder how many times when I got spooked sitting in the lineup I was actually onto something. Beautiful video, weirdly meditative and palpitation-inducing at the same time.
posted by Lyme Drop at 9:52 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Love the one where the shark starts going after a nearby fish, who starts, wisely, swimming the fuck out of there, and after a few tries, the shark is all like, "yeah ok, nah".
posted by Windopaene at 10:15 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's actually a bit reassuring to see how completely disinterested in the humans the sharks actually are. Thanks for the lifetime of needless ocean anxiety, Spielberg!
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:26 PM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]


Awwww, I love the cuddle shark, Johnny Walflower.
posted by BoscosMom at 12:39 AM on January 26, 2017


Thank you for the nightmares! :-)
posted by xammerboy at 1:19 AM on January 26, 2017


A slightly more disturbing photo of a shark near by an oblivious surfer.
posted by poxandplague at 3:50 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


We're gonna need a bigger paddle board.
posted by valkane at 3:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


pretty sure that's the same CD my massage therapist plays. terror is a strange new context for it. expecting my next appointment to be...slightly less restorative.
posted by Zerowensboring at 4:31 AM on January 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


What type of sharks are they?
posted by eyeofthetiger at 5:05 AM on January 26, 2017


This is what happens.
posted by wabbittwax at 6:01 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


People would be amazed at how little sharks, alligators, and other "scary" creatures care about them.

Totally. I was a beach lifeguard in St. Augustine, FL for nearly a decade, and watched sharks* swim super-close to beach patrons literally hundreds of times. The sharks never bothered anyone, and the swimmers were always oblivious. But every time a pod of dolphins would swim by 200 meters out every single tourist would come screaming out of the water. And when huge thunderstorms would roll in everyone would refuse to leave the water. People can be unbelievably bad at risk assessment, to the detriment of themselves and the natural world.

*Primarily lemon sharks, blacktips, and hammerheads.
posted by saladin at 6:09 AM on January 26, 2017 [7 favorites]


How many generations of our shark brothers, patiently waiting for a meal, denied it to themselves in order to give the ocean-killing monkeys "another chance"? Now is the time, I say, for revolution!*

* I never go in the water.
posted by maxwelton at 6:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


I yclept shark
and when I near
the surfer dudes
they run in fear.

They swim away
but I stay close;
I am too fast.
I lik their toes.
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:02 AM on January 26, 2017 [17 favorites]


I went shark cage diving once. My first reaction upon seeing a great white was primal terror. I screamed. They are unbelievably large. But after a while you see that they're really just normal animals who are basically disinterested in you; not the mindless killing machines movies make them out to be. There was a popular public beach within view of our shark diving spot, and though we saw a few dozen great whites in a single morning, there had never been an attack there.

My impression beforehand was that if there was a shark at your beach, you were going down - that shark attacks were avoided because sharks in public beaches were rare. Not because there are tons of sharks around beaches but they legitimately aren't much of a threat. I now see them less like serial killers and more like lightning: something potentially dangerous you should take reasonable precaution against, but nothing you should live in mortal terror of.

There is some controversy around the ethics of shark cage diving but I think as long as it's done responsibly, it's a valuable educational tool.
posted by Emily's Fist at 7:07 AM on January 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


But on a lighter note I still quote this awesome lady every time I hear about sharks.

"The ocean is the shark's house, okay? Don't go to the shark's house. The shark has every right to eat you when you're in his house."
posted by Emily's Fist at 7:13 AM on January 26, 2017


My wife and I do a lot of paddle boarding and if there's one thing we can be guaranteed to see every time we go out it's sharks. Mostly bonnet heads and the occasional hammer head. They don't give a crap about us at all and mainly are out chasing snook and mullet. With that said, I know a few friends-of-friends who have been bit but it's a lot less than the number of people I know who have been attacked by dogs.
posted by photoslob at 7:53 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yeah, okay. I'm just gonna stay up on land. Yep.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:59 AM on January 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


i am the shark
i swim the sea
and bide my time
peacibl-y

when surfers fall
then i go toward
i do not bite
i lik the bord
posted by zippy at 8:45 AM on January 26, 2017 [12 favorites]


Swimming with sharks, the original Nope!
posted by Beholder at 8:58 AM on January 26, 2017


They don't give a crap about us at all and mainly are out chasing snook and mullet.

I've been known to chase a little of the ol' snook-and-mullet in my day, if you know what I mean.
posted by univac at 11:15 AM on January 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


Now I have a mental image of Snooki in a mullet, along with a sudden urge to throw myself to the sharks.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:36 AM on January 26, 2017


This Shark All You Can Eat Buffet is very close to where Travis McGee moored the Busted Flush.
posted by dubwisened at 12:06 PM on January 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


This Shark All You Can Eat Buffet is very close to where Travis McGee moored the Busted Flush.

About 120 miles by car (bit less by boat on the Intracoastal Waterway) from Ft. Pierce Inlet to sloop F18 at Bahia Mar.
posted by paulcole at 8:34 PM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


This was amazing. Thanks for posting OP.
posted by SarahElizaP at 11:35 PM on January 28, 2017


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