A drone photo captured off the coast of Hartenbos, South Africa, has wowed views with the number of sharks spotted, especially as the population seemed to have dispersed in recent years.
At first glance, the ariel photo of Mossel Bay shared to Facebook by user Drone Fanatics SA might seem like another shot of the coastline, but drone photographer Christiaan Stopforth pointed out there is more lurking in the depths of the sea.
Look close enough and you might be able to spot "not one, not two, but five great white sharks" swimming near the beach. (It's harder than it looks!)
For all that do not live near shark-infested waters, five seems like a steep number for these kings of the ocean to be roaming near the coast. But drone photographer Christiaan Stopforth told Newsweek that in the past he's seen numbers closer to 12 and 15 of sharks in the area.
Mossel Bay is known to be a "hot spot" for great white sharks with some 40 to 60 sharks stalking the area at any given point, Live Science reported. But those numbers have seemingly been affected after the true rulers of the sea came into the area.
"Since the orcas came through and killed some of the sharks, [the sharks] were gone for quite some time," Stopforth said.
Orcas started turning to great white sharks in South Africa's waters from 2017 to 2019, causing the great white populations to disperse, Newsweek previously reported.
Stopforth added that it is only now the great white numbers are starting to pick up again.
The impressive photo was captured the morning of February 5 and shared in a Facebook post later that day. As of Friday, the photo had over 5,000 likes, 1,100 comments, and 1,200 shares.
Admittedly, I could not find the sharks without looking at Stopforth's highlighted photo. And now I know to never step foot in this great white shark hotspot. I'll just appreciate their beauty from afar like a majority of the other Facebook users are doing.
"Wow. So happy to see this! Such beautiful creatures," commented Catharine Antonizzi.
Annamarie Nèe Schoeman-Aucamp Roux added: "We coming next month for our holiday. I love swimming in the sea, but I'll give it a skip I think."
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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