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Great White Shark Distracts Divers? Footage Reveals Seemingly Coordinated Attack

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 03:12 PST, Jun 18, 2015

Video has re-emerged of a group of cage divers encountering a great white shark, which attempted to get into their enclosure after they were seemingly distracted by another predator.

In the video, two groups of divers can be seen suspended in cages below the surface of the ocean. A great white shark leisurely swims between the two cages, attracting the attention of the divers and the cameraman. The diver filming the shark turns to continue recording as the great white descends below the cage he is in, yet suddenly, a loud banging sound can be heard from behind.

As the cameraman turns, he captures another great white shark that has attempted to enter the dive cage, and is stuck within the bars, its mouth just inches from the back of a diver’s head. One of the aquanauts places his foot on the great white’s head, and two camera flashes in the shark’s face cause it to recoil, retreating from the cage as divers can be heard expressing their amazement, as the Daily Mail reports.

The seemingly coordinated attack was filmed and uploaded to YouTube by Paul Whittaker, according to the Mirror. Though it was originally released in 2013, the video has since resurfaced on reddit, garnering in excess of 100,000 views. It is believed the great white encounter was filmed off the coast of Guadalupe Island in Mexico, home to a large population of white sharks and a prime destination for those wishing to view them. If so, it is hardly the first piece of years-old footage from Guadalupe to go viral online.

Earlier this year, another video, also recorded in 2013 at Guadalupe, was released. It depicted Deep Blue, a great white shark of stunning size, as it swam near a group of divers in a cage. Considered to be one of the largest great whites ever documented, as the Inquisitr previously reported, Deep Blue was filmed by a Discovery crew several years ago for a Shark Week special. The newly released clip dated from that time, and racked up several million views after it was posted online by a researcher.

Located 150 miles to the west of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, Guadalupe is one of the three Mexican island groups not located on the continental shelf. The island has been a pinniped sanctuary since 1975, and is home to large populations of fur seals and elephant seals. These prey animals are thought to be the primary reason that Guadalupe is one of the preferred habitats worldwide for great white sharks.

[Photo by Paul Whittaker / YouTube, via the Mirror]

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