Tag: bondi beach

Hammerhead sharks skirt safety nets at popular Australian beach

Video footage captured Monday at Australia’s Bondi Beach shows two hammerhead sharks cruising inside safety nets designed to prevent large sharks from approaching the shore.

Video footage captured Monday at Australia’s Bondi Beach shows two hammerhead sharks cruising inside safety nets designed to prevent large sharks from approaching the shore.

The footage, shared to Instagram by Drone Shark App founder Jason Iggleden, shows the sharks swimming lazily beyond the surf, one behind the other.

“Great to see they diverted the nets safely,” Iggleden wrote in the description. “I haven’t seen this before, actually.”

Nobody was in the water at the Sydney beach when the footage was captured, just before sunrise. But a day earlier, Iggleden noted, thousands participated in a major swimming event.

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Shark nets are controversial because they exact a heavy toll on marine life and cannot guarantee that sharks won’t find a way around the barriers.

Leonardo Guida, a shark scientist at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told 9 News Australia that all three types of hammerhead sharks found off Australia are threatened.

“Two of the largest, scalloped and great hammerheads, are endangered and are protected species,” Guida said. “The fact these two were spotted on the beach-side of the net shows how outdated and ineffective this measure is.”

Iggleden’s commentary suggests that one shark in the footage is nicknamed Homer. “We’ll have to name the second one in the back,” he says. “Maybe Homer’s little girlfriend.”

Watch: Humpback whale follows closely behind swimmer

A drone operator has shared footage showing a humpback whale following a distance swimmer off Australia’s Bondi Beach.

A drone operator has shared footage showing a humpback whale closely following a distance swimmer off Australia’s Bondi Beach.

In the footage (posted below), the whale appears observe the swimmer as she leads the way, perhaps unaware that she’s being watched by the gentle giant.

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The footage, Captured this week by Drone Shark App, was put to the 1960s Ricky Nelson hit, “I Will Follow You.”

Its lyrics begin, “I will follow you… Follow you wherever you may go… There isn’t an ocean too deep… A mountain so high it can keep me away…”

Several viewers commented that other drones can be seen disturbingly close to the whale in the footage, while one commenter observed that the whale seems to mimic the swimmer’s movements.

Humpback whales, which can measure 60 feet and weigh 40 tons, are famously curious and gregarious.

Drone Shark App uses its cameras to monitor the presence of sharks and other marine life in the region.

–Image courtesy of Drone Shark App

Surfer picks wrong time to drop off board with shark nearby

A surfer in Australia slid off his surfboard and into the water just as a shark cruised below him in a close encounter captured on video.

A surfer in Australia slid off his surfboard and into the water just as a shark cruised below him in a close encounter Monday afternoon off Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Toby Nicol, who captured footage of the incident via drone, believed the unidentified surfer stepped on the shark, which appeared to be startled, and darted off and passed under other surfers as it moved on, according to 7NEWS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0eo-zl5S9Y

“He seemed to hop off his board right on top of the shark, and I jumped a little bit, I did wince,” Nicol told 7NEWS. “I would love to speak to [the surfer]. It would be great to just have a chat and just see if he knew it was a shark that he stepped on.”

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Experts told 7NEWS they believed the shark to be a grey nurse shark, an endangered species in New South Wales. It looked to be about 6 or 7-feet long.

“They’re a very placid animal,” marine scientist Dr. Vanessa Pirotta told 7NEWS. “So to see one move away when a swimmer hops in the water is not a surprise.”

No doubt the surfer can be thankful it wasn’t a great white or tiger shark.

Giant salmon school lures sharks, swimmers into close quarters

Swimmers explored an immense school of salmon Friday off Australia’s Bondi Beach, unaware that they were dangerously close to sharks.

Swimmers explored an immense school of salmon Friday off Australia’s Bondi Beach, unaware that they were dangerously close to sharks.

The accompanying footage, shared by Drone Shark App, opens with two swimmers several yards from the salmon, and what’s described as a grey nurse shark at the school’s edge.

Another scene shows a nurse shark and swimmer parting the salmon as they swim, each creating a green circle, blocked from each other’s view by the tightly grouped salmon.

“Co-existing with sharks and salmon schools. Not a good idea,” says the Drone Shark App commentator, who provides amusing commentary throughout the 3:39 clip. (The commentator declined to reveal his identity.)

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At 1:56, several distance swimmers enter the picture and begin to pass near or over one of the sharks. “Norman, there’s a huge school of humans coming,” the commentator says, apparently having named the shark Norman. “Look out!”

Two swimmers pass directly over the shark but do not seem to spot the predator.

The nurse sharks are not fazed by the presence of people, seemingly interested only in the salmon. But schooling salmon might also attract great white sharks, as Drone Shark App implies in its video description:

“Guys, I recommend do not swim in the salmon schools and swim on the beach side if you can as I’ve seen the more dangerous sharks approach from the outside on many occasions.”

On this morning, Drone Shark App did not spot any larger sharks. But the group did capture footage of stingrays, dolphins and seals foraging within and around the salmon.

–Images courtesy of Drone Shark App

Shark, swimmers unknowingly create spooky image

Ghost or the Grinch? These are just two observations regarding an image captured via drone Friday off Australia’s Bondi Beach, just in time for Halloween.

Ghost or Grinch?

These are just two observations regarding an image captured Friday via drone off Australia’s Bondi Beach, just in time for Halloween.

The image, captured by Drone Shark App and shared via social media, shows two swimmers and what’s described as a grey nurse shark swimming through an immense school of salmon just yards from shore.

The swimmers parted the salmon in the form of two circular clearings, which appear as eyes in a ghost-like face, while the shark cleared an area that might be perceived as a mouth.

The salmon school was so dense that the swimmers and shark seemed oblivious to each other’s presence. The spooky image, therefore, was purely coincidental.

“Do you see what I see?” Drone Shark App wrote on Facebook. “Tell me what you see?”

“Ooooh, it looks like a ghost. Just in time for Halloween,” one commenter wrote.

“Grinch,” stated another.

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But some comments pertained purely to the subjects.

“I see two people who want to be eaten,” a follower chimed in.

Reads another comment: “More reasons to fearfully admire the beautiful ocean and only go in a few feet from shore.”

Schooling salmon are common off Sydney at this time of year, and the fish attract both swimmers and apex predators.

In another Facebook post, Drone Shark App shared the video footage from which the accompanying screen shot was pulled. It shows several swimmers near or within the salmon school, oblivious to two nurse sharks also swimming through the school.

The drone operator, when contacted by For The Win Outdoors, asked only to be identified as Drone Shark App. The group’s social media pages are filled with photos of video clips showing sea life off Australia’s beaches.