Great white sharks are very curious creatures. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Carlos Gauna has seen far more sharks than most people. That’s because he spends much of his time standing on a beach, his face buried in his drone’s FPV goggles as it soars above the coastline of southern California. He makes amazing videos, mostly centered around great white sharks, but also of plenty of other sea life, as well. Recently he was in a for a pleasant surprise (pleasant for him, anyway) when a massive great white slid quietly in behind the kayak he was tailing, paddled by his friend Samantha.
You’ve likely heard that if you see a dolphin in the water, you can be relatively sure that there aren’t any sharks around. That’s not exactly true, but there is a kernel of truth.
“People often say that when there are dolphins around, there aren’t any sharks,” Gauna narrated. “Today we found out firsthand that this isn’t always the case.”
His friend Samantha was paddling the kayak through calm, clear waters, full of bait fish and dolphins. For a long time, there were no sharks to be seen, cementing the belief that dolphins and sharks don’t like to hang around too close to each other.
“Then, as I turned my camera back towards land, a white shark had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, “he continued. “Moments ago, this spot was empty.”
Sharks are naturally curious creatures that prefer to inspect possible prey from behind, and this behavior can be seen clearly in the footage. When Gauna spotted the great white, he radioed to Samantha to let her know. At first, she couldn’t see it because it was directly behind her, but when she spotted it, its size likely made her heart beat a little faster.
It’s worth noting here that the kayak is nearly 15 feet long, and the great white is roughly the same length. “This shark isn’t small,” Gauna says. “It’s a sub-adult about 12 feet long.”
In Gauna’s experience, he’s learned to tell when a shark is calm and curious and when it is aggressive and agitated. This one, thankfully, was the latter. The pectoral fins are spread out instead of pointed down, and it was simply having a look.
It’s a beautiful reminder that great white sharks, while capable of inflicting enormous damage, are not the bloodthirsty killers that they are often portrayed to be.