Tag: Stingray

Reef sharks ‘mob-hunt’ stingray in wild scene caught on video

A marine biologist based in the Maldives has shared footage showing blacktip reef sharks attacking a stingray in what was described as “mob-hunting” behavior.

A marine biologist based in the Maldives has shared footage showing blacktip reef sharks attacking a stingray in a rarely observed “mob-hunting” event.

Kate Sheridan captured the accompanying footage a year ago and reshared the clip Saturday, describing the scene as “still one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.”

As viewers can see, once the stingray became trapped in shallow water, and once the sharks attacked as a group, the outcome was clear.

Sheridan described the scene in her original post:

“The sharks individually made several attempts at the ray and the ray always escaped. Once the sharks went in together, the ray didn’t stand a chance.

“You can see the sharks are ambushing the ray, trapping it between the deeper water and the beach giving it nowhere to go! The sharks risk beaching themselves to make their kill.”

On Saturday, responding to questions from followers, Sheridan recapped:

— “Did the ray bury itself? No.”

— “Did [the sharks] kill it? Yes, they literally ate and left no crumbs.”

— “Why didn’t I help? It’s nature. It is not for me to intervene. There was no human-driven reason for this attack – the sharks saw a juvenile ray in a vulnerable position and took advantage.

“They are apex predators, it’s what they do. There was absolutely no reason for me to deny them a meal. Also, I’m not sticking my hand in there.”

Blacktip reef sharks are found throughout the Indo-Pacific and inhabit coral reefs and sandy areas near reefs. The sharks prey on a variety of fishes and will occasionally target smaller sharks and rays.

Beachgoers in awe as large shark chases stingray almost onto shore

A beachgoer at Hilton Head, S.C., this week captured dramatic footage showing a large shark chasing a stingray almost onto the beach.

A beachgoer at Hilton Head Island, S.C., on Tuesday captured dramatic footage showing a large lemon shark chasing a stingray almost onto the beach.

WSAV News 3 shared the footage, captured by Katy Albright, under the heading, “Shark vs. a stingray on a Hilton Head Island beach.”

It wasn’t much of a contest, however, as the shark appears to have caught the stingray without too much trouble in water just inches deep.

Albright described the scene as “Incredible” and “Wild.”

Some types of sharks, including lemon sharks and juvenile white sharks, prey on stingrays in shallow water at certain times of year.

Outcast Sport Fishing’s Chip Michalove, who tags sharks for research off Hilton Head, identified the shark in the video as a lemon shark.

A top Facebook comment reads: “I’m glad I didn’t see both of them while I was at Hilton Head swimming at the beach on my vacation a week ago.”

Stingray stalked by shark pulls a fast one to escape

A stingray being stalked only inches away by a lemon shark finally managed to ditch the predator with one slick maneuver.

A stingray being stalked only inches away by a lemon shark finally managed to ditch the predator when a cloud of sand was kicked up with the shark’s unsuccessful attack, allowing the stingray to remain hidden.

The shark looked around the cloud of sand as the stingray held its breath, so to speak. When the shark eventually swam off, the stingray made a mad dash out of the dirty water and swam the other way.

The encounter captured via drone occurred at a local Key West, Florida, sandbar only accessible by boat. Brett Bertini’s fascinating footage was taken last spring but was just posted Thursday on ViralHog.

Bertini explained the encounter to ViralHog: “When we arrived, we noticed a stingray (a common sight) with a chunk of flesh missing from its face (not as common). The stingray kept coming close to the boat, seeking cover from something. Soon after this, we noticed a large shark fin protruding from the water on the far side of the sandbar, indicating some sort of hunt was occurring.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Swimmer spots drone but not approaching tiger shark (video)

“I fired up my drone, took it up, and discovered that four lemons sharks were stalking this stingray, and one of them was quite large. The stingray continued wandering around with the sharks on his trail, but nobody was making a move. The stingray was probably smart enough to not make a run for it because sharks typically become more aggressive when prey acts erratically, but the sharks also were hesitant to go in for the kill, probably because they know the stingrays have a deadly barb on their tail for self-defense.

“Eventually, the largest shark began to follow closer and closer until he finally attempted to eat the ray, unsuccessfully as seen in the video. I followed them around for another 20 minutes or so before having to leave, so I never got to see the climax. But I am sure that eventually the sharks most likely got the kill.”

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Stunning video shows huge hammerhead shark racing to catch stingrays

As they watched the beach below from their hotel balcony, Catarena Peek and her boyfriend Alec Deshotel were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime sighting.

As they watched the beach below from their hotel balcony, Catarena Peek and her boyfriend Alec Deshotel were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime sighting of a huge hammerhead shark chasing stingrays close to shore at Orange Beach in Alabama.

“This is the first time we have ever seen anything like this for sure,” Deshotel told FOX10 News. “I look out the window…and there it is. Massive 10- to 12-foot hammerhead…We don’t know how big it was, but it was massive…

Also on FTW Outdoors: Shark creates intimidating wake as it approaches anglers (video)

“There was some man down there screaming that there was a shark and I guess they finally saw the dorsal fin and they realized how close he started getting so they started jumping out of the water as fast as they could.”

The hammerhead shark showed its speed and agility during the chase that gave those on the beach an incredible close-up view of nature at work.

The view from the 10th floor by Peek and Deshotel was pretty special, too, as you can see from Peek’s video on Facebook.

“I just ended up videoing it and it was a really cool video so I just posted to Facebook thinking a couple hundred of my friends would find it kind of cool and then all of a sudden, I looked down at my phone and it was over 100,000 views and I was like, Oh, that’s pretty cool,” she told FOX10 News.

Indeed, it is quite cool–a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience for sure,” the couple pointed out to FOX10 News.

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Did a stingray really kill this mako shark? Many are skeptical

Beachgoers north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, recently found a freshly killed mako shark with what they believe was a stingray barb protruding from its head.

Beachgoers north of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, recently found a freshly killed mako shark with what they believed was a stingray barb protruding from its head.

“A shark that washed out on the beach in San Jose del Cabo. Apparently because it lost a battle with a stingray,” Arturo Chacon, owner of Tag Cabo Sportfishing, wrote on Instagram.

His post has been widely shared and the images have been “borrowed” by other social media users, spreading the stingray theory.

But did a stingray really kill the mako shark? Or was the culprit, perhaps, a much swifter billfish?

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For The Win Outdoors shared the post with Chris Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach in Southern California. Lowe was skeptical as to whether it was a stingray barb, citing its thickness, but added that he could not tell for sure without seeing more than what appeared in Chacon’s image.

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“My alternate guess is a marlin or sailfish bill, but hard to tell without seeing the whole thing,” Lowe said. “Either way, it must have incapacitated the shark enough for it to strand on the beach. Dead sharks sink, so it might have disoriented the shark. Based on the angle of attack, the object likely didn’t pierce the shark’s brain.”

Tracy Ehrenberg, whose family runs Pisces Sportfishing in Cabo San Lucas, agreed with Lowe.

“First thought would be stingray, but shark skin is extremely tough especially in that area and I do not believe a stingray could penetrate the skin, so my guess would be a sailfish,” she said. “Fastest fish in the ocean, swam at the shark at speed, impaled [the shark] and and broke its bill off.”

On the Tag Cabo Sportfishing Instagram post, the Living Sharks Museum in Rhode Island reached out to Chacon, asking if he had more images because “there is some debate regarding details going on in the scientific community about this that could be put to rest with more evidence.”

Chacon told For The Outdoors that he did not possess any other images.

He said he was walking on the beach when he and others discovered the shark Feb. 18. “It looked like it was fresh or lost its life not long ago,” Chacon said. “I cannot tell you for sure what it was, so I just assumed it was from a big stingray.”

Chacon added that another local, who was on the beach with a truck, collected the the shark and drove off. “He said he was going to eat it,” Chacon said.

–Images courtesy of Tag Cabo Sportfishing