Video: Great White Shark Nearly Collides with Surfer While Hunting Stingrays in San Diego

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
5

Great white sharks, especially of the juvenile variety, are fairly commonplace in the shallow waters of Southern California.

Hence, why, there are so many sightings of sharks mingling amongst surfers. And a lot of the time, the sharks are there in the lineup unbeknownst to said surfers; but the rise of drone photography has changed that, with eyes in the sky, showing just how often sharks and surfers are sharing the water. (About 97% of the time at certain Southern California surf spots, according to a recent study from Cal State Long Beach’s Shark Lab.)

Like this one below, which shows a young great white hunting for stingrays (a primary part of their diet), when it almost collided with an unsuspecting surfer in San Diego.

The clip comes from drone videographer and marine life enthusiast, Scott Fairchild, who captioned it:

“Great White youngster hunting rays in a few feet of water. As usual, when a wave comes through they’ll turn back out. And in this case, into a surfer.

“Surfer never did see it.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen footage from Fairchild of juvenile great whites hanging out with surfers in San Diego. Just last week, we saw another, similar clip.

But in all his footage and findings, it appears that the sharks aren’t as interested in the surfers as some might think. They’re not maneaters; at least, human isn’t their preferred menu item. And the study from CSULB’s Shark Lab confirms that, too:

“I think people will be shocked by these findings — we never expected to see so many encounters every day with no incidents,” said Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab. “We’re also using drones to examine how white sharks behave when they are near people and how they may tell the difference between surfers and swimmers.”

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