‘Shark’s eye view’ camera shows 10-foot predator photobombing shark off Florida

An intimidating 10-foot great white shark created “an unprecedented underwater encounter” when it crossed paths with a much smaller nurse shark sporting a camera on its back, according to Florida Atlantic University.

The footage counts as a first on several levels, including giving biologists a “shark’s eye view” of what it’s like to encounter something bigger and badder in the neighborhood.

In this case, the nurse shark was 3 feet smaller and the neighborhood was a shallow reef (75 feet deep) off Boynton Beach Inlet, about a 60-mile drive north from Miami.

“While divers have reported seeing great white sharks here recently, this rare footage gives us a shark’s-eye view of the interactions between these two very different kinds of sharks,” Dr. Stephen Kajiura of Florida Atlantic University said in an April 10 news release.

“Our footage clearly showed a great white, estimated to be at least 10 feet long, and reveals a rare moment of shark-on-shark action — or what we’re coining as a ‘shark photobomb.’”

Great white sharks have earned their apex predator status by eating other sharks, experts say.

In this case, the footage shows the two sharks were ignoring each other, though the fact the great white kept appearing in the video indicates it was being watched.

“These two sharks interacted for about four minutes. It wasn’t just a one-off. They passed each other multiple times around this artificial reef,” Kajiura said.

“I think this is probably one of the few times where a shark has captured a picture of another shark.”

Kajiura, a professor of biological sciences at FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, is part of a team studying “the migratory patterns and behavior of sharks in the waters off Palm Beach County,” the university says.

The footage was retrieved when the buoyant camera tag popped off the shark’s dorsal fin and washed ashore at the Gulfstream Golf Club in Delray Beach, officials said.

“That footage was a completely unexpected surprise,” FAU master’s student Genevieve Sylvester said in the release. “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 a truly an unforgettable moment”

Nurse sharks grow to about 9 feet and are bottom dwellers, known to stick close to coral reefs, NOAA Fisheries says.

This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 1:45 PM with the headline "‘Shark’s eye view’ camera shows 10-foot predator photobombing shark off Florida."