Marine researchers often hope for surprises when tagging animals with cameras, but no one expected… well, this. Off the coast of Boynton Beach, Florida, a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) unknowingly became the cinematographer for a rare appearance by a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) — possibly the first time one has ever been documented on video in South Florida waters from another shark’s perspective. It’s an underwater photobomb that has thrilled scientists and opened the door to new questions about where great whites travel and why.
Dr. Stephen Kajiura, a professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, has been tracking and studying sharks in Palm Beach County for years. His team’s work has focused on blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus), lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) and hammerheads, especially during their seasonal migrations. They’ve built a detailed understanding of where and when these species travel along the Florida coast.
But this latest footage was a curveball no one saw coming.
The research team had equipped a nurse shark with a bright orange camera tag, a piece of technology that is routinely attached to the dorsal fin, left to record the animal’s natural behavior, then pop off at a set time to be collected. This one logged both video and motion data, kind of like a FitBit, but for fish. It’s not new tech for Kajiura’s team. What was new was what they saw when they reviewed the video: a ten-foot-long (3 meters) great white shark swimming casually into view and interacting with the tagged nurse shark near Donny Boy Slipe Reef, an artificial reef structure made of over 800 tons of limestone boulders.
“While divers have reported seeing great whites here recently, this rare footage gives us a shark’s-eye view of the interactions between these two very different kinds of sharks,” said Kajiura. The clip shows the two sharks swimming together for about four minutes. The team jokingly dubbed it a “shark photobomb,” but it’s more than just a funny moment — it’s a unique record of a rarely seen predator in an unexpected place.
The excitement of the footage was nearly overshadowed by the panic of possibly losing it. When the tag failed to ping its location after detaching, Kajiura feared it was lost to the sea. “At that point, the chances of getting the tag back were slim,” he said. But four days later, luck stepped in. A signal came through, revealing the tag had floated ashore at Gulfstream Golf Club in Delray Beach. Kajiura found it nestled in a pile of seaweed, mere inches away from the tire tracks of a large beach tractor. “We were incredibly lucky it didn’t get run over and crushed!”
Among the research team members is Genevieve Sylvester, a master’s student working in FAU’s Elasmo Lab under Kajiura’s direction. “What we captured on that footage was a completely unexpected surprise,” she said. She recalled the moment they watched the footage together for the first time: “We were all huddled around my computer. When we saw the great white shark appear — more than once — we couldn’t believe it. To witness it from the shark’s point of view made it even more surreal. It was truly an unforgettable moment for our entire team.”
The footage is part of a broader effort by Kajiura’s team to learn more about shark behavior in South Florida’s coastal waters. While the nurse shark may have unintentionally become an underwater filmmaker, the researchers are hoping to capture more valuable footage with this method. They plan to tag more sharks, including great hammerheads (Sphyrna mokarran) and lemon sharks, to gather even more data on how these species use artificial reefs and how they interact with one another. Kajiura says this is just the beginning. The unexpected encounter has only deepend their interest in exploring South Florida’s underwater world. With continued support from organizations like the Colgan Foundation, which has backed Kajiura’s research over the long term, the team is ready to tag more sharks and see what other surprises the ocean has in store.
“Stay tuned. There is much more to come,” Kajiura said. “This is just the beginning of an incredible journey.”
