Shark cameras reveal secret lives of South Africa’s great white sharks - PerthNow

Sharks are more agile than scientists thought, groundbreaking footage from great white’s fins has revealed.

WA marine biologist Oliver Jewell helped capture footage of sharks swimming through kelp to hunt seals in South Africa.

He and a team of scientists attached trackers with video cameras to eight sharks’ fins and collected 28 hours of footage from each animal.

“The cameras allow us to see what is going on beneath the surface. The rest of the technology is like a fit bit — a motion sensor that can see each movement a shark makes,” Mr Jewell said.

A view from the fin-cam as a great white shark swims through kelp beds off South Africa.Picture: Jewell et al, Biology Letters

“We can see how they interact with their surroundings in real time, and they are able to make some pretty spectacular 180- degree turns in the kelp forest.”

Mr Jewell, a researcher at Murdoch University’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Eco-systems, said in the past scientists had to guess how sharks navigated foliage.

“We knew seals used kelp forests when sharks were present and sharks hung around them but we couldn’t see what was going on,” he said. “But now we can see they go right inside and are actively looking for seals.”

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