Keep your fancy-pants computer simulations, your elaborate prop mock-ups, or even your own imagination: there’s now video footage demonstrating exactly what it’s like to stare a feisty great white shark straight in the mouth.
During a recent excursion off Cape Cod, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy team came across a female specimen that seemed to have escaped their tagging efforts. In an attempt to gain a visual on that particular toothy swimmer, researcher Greg Skomal took to the water with his GoPro.
Skomal and his camera-on-a-stick assemblage were doing a good job of taking video footage when the shark decided to, well, say hello. The footage of said greeting is horrifying.
Too many teeth. Too much mouth.
Skomal reportedly said that reaction to the camera wasn’t even predatory, but more inquisitive. That makes sense, as it’s unlikely the great white would have ever encountered a tiny digital camera before in its life.
The Conservancy says the tagging operation means they now “have the ability to track local and long range movements, study behavior and biology, and estimate population size.” Not mentioned: the ability to cause sleeplessness in hapless landlubbers.
