Anglers Film Massive Hammerhead Shark Off Florida Beach
A group of anglers on a fishing trip off a popular Florida beach managed to film a massive hammerhead shark, and video of their encounter has since been viewed over 40,000 times.
The fishermen were located near Perdido Key, a popular tourist destination, when they spotted the hammerhead, according to the Times Picayune. Fed Moore of Flomaton, Alabama, managed to record the shark as it swam in just a few feet of water, its dorsal fin breaking the surface. As the shark approached their boat, it turned abruptly, inadvertently ramming into the vessel’s motor before wheeling away from the anglers.
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Once the video was posted on Facebook, it quickly spread. The hammerhead clip was shared over 600 times, and had racked up 40,000 views as of Monday afternoon. Moore responded to questions from friends, indicating that he estimated the hammerhead shark to be roughly 10-feet-long. The footage, he observed, was captured at Pensacola Pass near Fort McRee. Moore also noted that the shark was simply investigating the fishermen, and didn’t act aggressively.
Meet @Shark_Einstein, OCEARCH’s Newest Hammerhead #Shark http://t.co/w0dvgW0TyH via @theinquisitr pic.twitter.com/zy0GIsNWiD
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) June 28, 2015
There are a variety of species of hammerhead which swim the world’s oceans, and recently, several specimens have caught the media’s attention. Earlier this month, researchers managed to tag a seven-foot-long hammerhead in the Gulf of Mexico, and observers can now follow the shark’s progress through the non-profit group Ocearch. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the shark was named Einstein by the team that tagged him, and already has a social media presence, like many of the other popular sharks that Ocearch tracks.
More recently, a hammerhead made an appearance off Ocean City, Maryland, frightening beachgoers out of the water. Researchers noted that the hammerhead was acting strangely, approaching the shore and swimmers more closely than such a shark usually would. As the Washington Post notes, they asserted that the shark could be sick or injured, pointing out that the hammerhead had repeatedly tried to beach itself.
The hammerhead shark seen yesterday in Ocean City washed up on the shores after scaring people for a full 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/xdXsNNATxd — DC Maryland Virginia (@DMVFollowers) June 26, 2015
The hammerhead sighting comes at the end of a month that has seen an unusual number of shark incidents along the East Coast. North Carolina, in particular, has been the site of at least seven shark attacks, several of which took place surprisingly close to each other. Just last week, two shark attacks were reported in two days along the Outer Banks. Though it is unclear what species of shark has been responsible for those incidents, it is unlikely to have been a hammerhead, as they are not known to be aggressive in the presence of humans.
[Image: Fed Moore via the Times Picayune]
