{"id":446567,"date":"2026-05-26T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/446567\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:08:13","slug":"great-white-shark-chomps-on-kayakers-camera-off-southern-california-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/446567\/","title":{"rendered":"Great white shark chomps on kayaker\u2019s camera off Southern California coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A filmmaker out on an excursion to capture footage of sharks off the Southern California coast last month unexpectedly got the shot of a lifetime when a great white shark took a bite out of one of his cameras.<\/p>\n

The harrowing ordeal unfolded in late April when Carlos Gauna, who goes by The Malibu Artist <\/a>on YouTube, was on one of his regular trips to document the apex predators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around them a lot,\u201d Gauna told KTLA\u2019s Lindsey Pe\u00f1a. \u201cThey don\u2019t normally come at you like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauna frequently films great whites from a kayak using multiple cameras and a drone, which is why he was able to capture so many different angles of the close encounter.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the day, but I typically like to have three cameras going, an aerial drone and a couple cameras on the kayak and maybe even one on my person sometimes,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Video from the incident shows the shark moving rapidly toward the camera before clamping down on it.<\/p>\n

Moments before the encounter, Gauna said he temporarily lost communication with the friend operating the overhead drone, leaving him unaware of exactly where the shark was in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot knowing where the shark is and I look back and the shadow of the shark is right there,\u201d he recalled. \u201cBy the time I got comms with him, all I can hear is my buddy yelling, \u2018He got the camera! He got the camera!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the shark being just feet away, Gauna said conditions made it difficult to see the animal underwater.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Guana captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna captured a great white shark biting one of his cameras off the Southern California coast in April 2026. (YouTube: @TheMalibuArtist)<\/p>\n

\u201cI did feel the tug and then I saw the splash afterwards,\u201d he said. \u201cIt bit down on it and cracked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the shark did not swim away with the camera, but Gauna said the bite caused serious damage to the dome protecting the equipment.<\/p>\n

Man sentenced to death in gruesome 1983 O.C. rape, murder dies in prison <\/a><\/p>\n

Despite his years of professionally documenting sharks off the California coast, Gauna said he\u2019s never experienced anything like this.<\/p>\n

He believes conditions that day played a major role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of bait in the water that day, a lot of sea lion activity,\u201d he said. \u201cPerfect situation for an encounter like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The filmmaker told KTLA that the footage he posts online is meant to showcase the animals and educate people about shark behavior and ocean safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you enter the water, you\u2019re entering their domain,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we have to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked where exactly the great white encounter occurred, Guana explained that he prefers not to divulge the location because fishermen might use the information to hunt the ocean predators.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A filmmaker out on an excursion to capture footage of sharks off the Southern California coast last month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[210653,227743,16140,111,139,69,147,227742,406,227744,4139],"class_list":["post-446567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-california-coast","tag-carlos-gauna","tag-great-white-shark","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-southern-california-coast","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-filmmaker","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}