Latest news with #StephenKajiura
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Photobomb! Nurse shark equipped with FAU camera films great white shark off South Florida
Photobombers are just about everywhere: in big cities, at family parties, and even in the ocean. A 10-foot-long great white shark image was captured by a nurse shark that Florida Atlantic University researchers had equipped with a camera. The sharks were swimming around the Donnyboy Silpe Reef, an artificial reef off Boynton Beach. Researchers placed a camera on a nurse shark designed to collect both video footage and 3D acceleration data, which is comparable to step-counting features in mobile devices. The camera caught a four-minute interaction between the great white shark and nurse shark filming it. 'While divers have reported seeing great white sharks here recently, this rare footage gives us a shark's-eye view of the interactions between these two very different kinds of sharks,' FAU biological studies professor Stephen Kajiura said in a university news release. 'Our footage clearly showed a great white, estimated to be at least 10 feet long, and reveals a rare moment of shark-on-shark action — or what we're coining as a 'shark photobomb.' ' Slimey visitors: Florida Burmese pythons are adapting, evolving and slithering around the Treasure Coast Proposal: Hunting black bears could happen soon in Florida Yes, North Atlantic great white sharks leave their summer feeding grounds off Atlantic Canada and New England. Once they leave their feeding grounds, they head for warmer waters and abundant food sources as far south as Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration has renamed the Gulf of America. Can't get enough of great white sharks? You can check out Ocearch, which has tagged 125 white sharks, many of them along the Eastern Seaboard and Nova Scotia. Every so often, you'll see one of them ping along the Treasure Coast. Follow their journeys on the Ocearch shark tracker website or by downloading the Ocearch Global Shark Tracker app. Here are some recent visits to the Treasure Coast: Contender: The biggest male great white shark ever tagged by Ocearch pinged off the Indian River County coast, northeast of Vero Beach at 10:09 a.m. Feb. 24. Contender is a 13-foot, 9-inch shark. Danny: A 9-foot-long great white shark pinged off the Jupiter Island coast twice on Feb. 2, at 5:30 a.m. and 6:09 a.m. Kim Luciani and Ashely Ferrer contributed to this article. Gianna Montesano is TCPalm's trending reporter. You can contact her at 772-409-1429, or follow her on Twitter @gonthescene. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Great white shark caught on camera by nurse shark off Boynton Beach
Forbes
13-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Shark Photobomb: Nurse Shark Records Rare Great White Encounter
Marine biologists studying local sharks were stunned when a nurse shark's camera recorded a great ... More white photobombing their research. Marine researchers often hope for surprises when tagging animals with cameras, but no one expected… well, this. Off the coast of Boynton Beach, Florida, a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) unknowingly became the cinematographer for a rare appearance by a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) — possibly the first time one has ever been documented on video in South Florida waters from another shark's perspective. It's an underwater photobomb that has thrilled scientists and opened the door to new questions about where great whites travel and why. Dr. Stephen Kajiura, a professor at Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, has been tracking and studying sharks in Palm Beach County for years. His team's work has focused on blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus), lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) and hammerheads, especially during their seasonal migrations. They've built a detailed understanding of where and when these species travel along the Florida coast. But this latest footage was a curveball no one saw coming. The research team had equipped a nurse shark with a bright orange camera tag, a piece of technology that is routinely attached to the dorsal fin, left to record the animal's natural behavior, then pop off at a set time to be collected. This one logged both video and motion data, kind of like a FitBit, but for fish. It's not new tech for Kajiura's team. What was new was what they saw when they reviewed the video: a ten-foot-long (3 meters) great white shark swimming casually into view and interacting with the tagged nurse shark near Donny Boy Slipe Reef, an artificial reef structure made of over 800 tons of limestone boulders. 'While divers have reported seeing great whites here recently, this rare footage gives us a shark's-eye view of the interactions between these two very different kinds of sharks,' said Kajiura. The clip shows the two sharks swimming together for about four minutes. The team jokingly dubbed it a 'shark photobomb,' but it's more than just a funny moment — it's a unique record of a rarely seen predator in an unexpected place. The excitement of the footage was nearly overshadowed by the panic of possibly losing it. When the tag failed to ping its location after detaching, Kajiura feared it was lost to the sea. 'At that point, the chances of getting the tag back were slim,' he said. But four days later, luck stepped in. A signal came through, revealing the tag had floated ashore at Gulfstream Golf Club in Delray Beach. Kajiura found it nestled in a pile of seaweed, mere inches away from the tire tracks of a large beach tractor. 'We were incredibly lucky it didn't get run over and crushed!' A nurse shark wearing a camera tag off Boynton Beach captured rare footage of a great white shark, ... More marking a possible first for South Florida waters. Among the research team members is Genevieve Sylvester, a master's student working in FAU's Elasmo Lab under Kajiura's direction. 'What we captured on that footage was a completely unexpected surprise,' she said. She recalled the moment they watched the footage together for the first time: 'We were all huddled around my computer. When we saw the great white shark appear — more than once — we couldn't believe it. To witness it from the shark's point of view made it even more surreal. It was truly an unforgettable moment for our entire team.' The footage is part of a broader effort by Kajiura's team to learn more about shark behavior in South Florida's coastal waters. While the nurse shark may have unintentionally become an underwater filmmaker, the researchers are hoping to capture more valuable footage with this method. They plan to tag more sharks, including great hammerheads (Sphyrna mokarran) and lemon sharks, to gather even more data on how these species use artificial reefs and how they interact with one another. Kajiura says this is just the beginning. The unexpected encounter has only deepend their interest in exploring South Florida's underwater world. With continued support from organizations like the Colgan Foundation, which has backed Kajiura's research over the long term, the team is ready to tag more sharks and see what other surprises the ocean has in store. 'Stay tuned. There is much more to come,' Kajiura said. 'This is just the beginning of an incredible journey.'
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Watch: Great white shark photobombs Florida university's ocean camera
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) made a cool discovery while viewing their underwater ocean camera footage – a great white shark! The shark was estimated to be 10-feet long. Stephen Kajiura, Ph.D., a professor of biological sciences at FAU, said the footage was a "rare moment of shark-on-shark action – or what we're coining as a 'shark photobomb.'" What we know Professor Kajiura and his research team have been studying the travel habits and behavior of sharks in the waters off Palm Beach County, Florida, for several years. They gather their research by tagging a camera to a nurse shark's dorsal fin. The tag is lightweight, letting the shark swim normally while FAU researchers collect video footage and 3D acceleration data – kind of like the step counter on a smartphone, according to the university. What they're saying FAU said their research normally focuses on blacktips, hammerheads and lemon sharks, but this time, Genevieve Sylvester, a master's student on the team, said the footage "was a completely unexpected surprise." See the video below: As the nurse shark swam around Donny Boy Slipe Reef, its camera tag recorded a four-minute interaction with a great white shark. "While divers have reported seeing great white sharks here recently, this rare footage gives us a shark's-eye view of the interactions between these two very different kinds of sharks," Professor Kajiura said in a statement. "Our footage clearly showed a great white, estimated to be at least 10 feet long, and reveals a rare moment of shark-on-shark action – or what we're coining as a 'shark photobomb.," he added. "We were all huddled around my computer, reviewing the footage" Sylvester said. "When we saw the great white shark appear – more than once – we couldn't believe it. To witness it from the shark's point of view made it even more surreal. It was a truly an unforgettable moment for our entire team." The backstory The university said the research is part of a larger effort to continue learning about how sharks behave in South Florida. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: Download the FOX Local app for breaking news alerts, the latest news headlines Download the FOX 35 Storm Team Weather app for weather alerts & radar Sign up for FOX 35's daily newsletter for the latest morning headlines FOX Local:Stream FOX 35 newscasts, FOX 35 News+, Central Florida Eats on your smart TV The Source This story was written based on information provided by Florida Atlantic University on April 10, 2025.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Shark cam captures Florida close encounters in nurse shark-great white shark 'photobomb'
Even sharks have mastered the art of the photobomb. A camera placed by researchers on a nurse shark captured an unexpected interaction with a great white shark, in what Florida Atlantic University marine biologists believe to be 'the first-ever photobomb' unintentionally documenting the shark in South Florida. The four-minute interaction occurred at Donny Boy Slipe Reef off Boynton Beach. Stephen Kajiura, Ph.D., a biological sciences professor at FAU, and his team studies shark behavior and patterns of migration. He says the rare footage gave a 'shark's-eye view' into the interaction between two very different sharks. 'Our footage clearly showed a great white, estimated to be at least 10 feet long, and reveals a rare moment of shark-on-shark action – or what we're coining as a 'shark photobomb,' " Kajiura said. Kajiura feared the recording equipment on the shark, called a camera tag, was lost when it did not ping when expected. However, the tag ended up pinging four days later and was located at the Gulfstream Golf Club in Delray Beach. The researchers plan to equip more species with camera tags as a part of their ongoing efforts studying shark behavior. Yes. North Atlantic great white sharks are known to leave their summer feeding grounds off Atlantic Canada and New England to head as far south as Florida and the Gulf, for warmer waters and more abundant food sources. OCEARCH experts said during the warmer months, these apex predators take advantage of the abundant seal populations and rich prey resources found in these areas. As temperatures drop and food sources dwindle, white sharks are triggered by a combination of decreasing water temperatures and changes in daylight hours, prompting their southward migration. Think of them as the snowbirds of sharks. Most of them tend to stay away from the beaches in continental shelf waters, according to OCEARCH chief scientist Dr. Bob Hueter. Great white sharks are found in every ocean, though they stay away from the colder waters of Antarctica and the Arctic. They can be found around Florida's coast, from the state's east coast to the Gulf. There's no absolute data on the global population of white sharks and estimates vary widely – from 3,000 to over 10,000. According to NOAA Fisheries: The stock status for white shark populations in U.S. waters is unknown and no stock assessments have been completed. No stock assessments are currently planned in the Atlantic. Research by NOAA Fisheries scientists indicates that abundance trends have been increasing in the northwest Atlantic since regulations protecting them were first implemented in the 1990s. According to a NOAA Fisheries status review and recent research, the northeastern Pacific white shark population appears to be increasing and is not at risk of becoming endangered in U.S. waters. According to NOAA Fisheries, white sharks have a diverse and opportunistic diet of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammals. Juvenile white sharks mainly eat bottom fish, smaller sharks and rays, schooling fish and squids. Larger white sharks often gather around seal and sea lion colonies to feed and also occasionally scavenge dead whales. North Atlantic great white sharks migrate as far south as Florida and the Gulf in winter, searching for warmer waters and more food sources. OCEARCH has tagged 125 white sharks, many of them along the Eastern Seaboard and Nova Scotia. You can follow their journeys on the OCEARCH shark tracker website or by downloading the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app. This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Sharks in Florida: FAU unknowingly captures photo of great white shark
