Shark attacks on people, for all the coverage they get, are thankfully still rare – as Discover blogger Christie Wilcox has pointed out
. But if you go taunting a great white with a seal-shaped robotic submarine... well, all bets are off. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution did just that with their REMUS SharkCam
, which they deployed in 2013 off Guadalupe Island in the Pacific, where sharks hunt giant elephant seals. The footage they've just released shows the attack styles of these hunters up close and personal, and in panorama, thanks to its suite of video cameras facing all directions. According to Woods Hole, the SharkCam has been tested on white sharks and basking sharks near Cape Cod in addition to these tests near Guadalupe Island on the west coast of Mexico. Plans are currently underway to use the system to follow other large marine animals such as sea turtles, they say. Enticing, to be sure – but somehow sea turtles lack a certain, how should we say, bloodthirsty camera presence that makes these great whites thrilling to watch. To skip right to the good parts, check out:
Or watch from the beginning here:
