INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Great White Shark Surfaces To Smile At Film Crew For Once-In-A-Lifetime Shot

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 13:45 PST, May 10, 2015

A film crew in Australia recently captured an unusual and striking photograph of a great white shark after the 15-foot-long predator surfaced to observe their actions.

Filmmaker Dave Riggs and his crew caught the image of the great white while filming off Port Lincoln in South Australia, according to the Daily Mail. Although the shark looks aggressive in the photo, Riggs noted that nothing could be further from the truth, as the great white was simply assessing its surroundings.

“We’d just come back from Port Lincoln in South Australia, and while we were over there, we ran into one of the most remarkable animals I’ve ever seen,” Riggs noted in a video. “It was a female great white. She was around four and a half meters in length, and extremely inquisitive of what we were and what we were doing.”

Though the white shark approached the boat with its mouth open, putting its imposing set of teeth on display, Riggs pointed out that it was simply examining its surroundings, using the only method at its disposal.

“Great whites don’t have hands, so she was researching the area the only way she knows how, and that’s with her mouth,” he said. “This photo is quite dramatic, but it really highlights how awesome these apex predators are.”

The striking image comes several months after a battle between a white shark and a pod of orcas was reported from the nearby Neptune Islands, as the Mirror notes. Witnesses related that the orca pod killed the white shark after showing their young how to hunt the animal, an act that drove the remainder of the local shark population out of the region. As the Inquisitr previously reported, white sharks are known to flee an area in which one of their species has died.

Riggs also asserted that while white sharks are feared by humans, their bad reputation is hardly deserved.

“It’s like any top-of-the-line, apex predator; you grab a cat by the tail and give it a pull and see what happens… all animals are aggressive in their own way, and great whites just happen to have very sharp, pointy teeth.”

The full story behind Riggs’ once-in-a-lifetime encounter with the great white shark will air as part of Discovery’s Shark Week, which begins on July 5.

[Image: Discovery US/ Dave Riggs via the Daily Mail]

Share this article: Great White Shark Surfaces To Smile At Film Crew For Once-In-A-Lifetime Shot
australia
More from Inquisitr