Viral Video: Sharks 'Mob Hunt' Surfer’s Mortal Enemy, the Stingray

Dashel Pierson
·2 min read
6

Any experienced surfer will be familiar with the “stingray shuffle.”

It’s a dance, a defensive maneuver, to guard against the fierce, crippling, insanely painful jab from a stingray’s barb and the venom it exudes into the bloodstream.

Any surfer who’s had the unfortunate experience of being stung will tell you – it is NOT fun.

But stingrays, although mortal enemies of the surfer, are also a primary food source for many species of sharks. Like juvenile great whites in Southern California.

Or the blacktip reef shark, which inhabit the Pacific and Indian Oceans. As seen in the video above, from marine conservationist Kate Sheridan, a pack of blacktip reef sharks “mob hunt” a stingray – basically they rolled up on the ray, outnumbered, and jumped it.

Break yo self, fool!

Sheridan wrote:

“1 year ago four blacktip reef sharks successfully hunted a juvenile stingray right in front of me ‼️ one year on and this is still one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen!

“Mob hunting as I understand is pretty rare to see, and it is wild. I have so much more respect for these sharks having seen this - they are top top predators!

“Most commonly asked questions I get on this video, which has been viewed MILLIONS of times (still blows my mind):

“- did the ray bury itself? No

“- did they kill it? Yes, they literally ate and left no crumbs

“- why didn’t I help? It’s nature. It is not for me to intervene. There was no human-driven reason for this attack - the sharks saw a juvenile ray in a vulnerable position and took advantage. They are apex predators, it’s what they do. There was absolutely no reason for me to deny them a meal.

“Also, I’m not sticking my hand in there😂”

The circle of life. Beautiful.

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