Hi! These are Atlantic pygmy devil rays (Mobula hypostoma) -- cool footage of them probably feeding in the surf! I know a PhD student who is studying these rays with Mote Marine Laboratory to support their conservation. Do you remember the date that you took the video, or at least the month and year? As well as if there was a nearby landmark for a more precise location? Pygmy devil rays are endangered and very understudied so any information you’re able to share would be helpful in understanding the seasonality and distribution of this species! Thanks for your time, we appreciate it =)
Guessing mostly Black tips? Maybe a spinner/sandbar or two in there. Not too risky of sharks, other then being accidently bitten being in there, otherwise mostly harmless. The sharks you watch for here in these waters are Bulls/Tigers. 20 years of diving/snorkeling at Panama city beach experience :)
Wow, I live on the west end of the beach, and I've never seen anything like this before. I see dolphins pushing fish to the shore on the east end for their babies, but not sharks ..
wished I would had saw this when I was there just 2 months earlier. I'll definitely go grab my rod and a top water lure in my room and catch one of these sharks.
I jet ski out there all summer, i've seen sharks so many times cant even count. I even warn swimmers and people in the water. Most act like i'm joking. It's amazing!!! One day, there was a boat about 100 yards from the beach, they were shark fishing, dont know if they were chumming , but there was about 7 sharks tearing up their lines.. Warned swimmers again, only about 10% took me serious. This video you have is definitely not a common occurance on our beaches.
That's pretty cool. Saw the same thing back in the 90's near cocoa beach. it was a little scarier as a buddy and I were wading in the water about 75 feet out. and the frenzy happened between us and the shore.
I understand this is an amazing experience but .. come on .. having your young kids so close to the water on the beach ... these people really are taking their kids lives for granted .. just one second is all it takes ... and the child is pulled in .. I am amazed the parents have not been charged with stupidity.
+L Gorman - You're being a little over-cautious there. The best thing to do when you see top-ranking predators eating everything that moves, is encourage your children into the water, so they can see it first hand. Everyone knows that a feeding shark would swim past the legs of a small child to get to a fish...Don't they?
It has been very well documented that when humans .. splash around .. (which most little kids do in the water), that they can be mistaken as fish ... it is better to caution on protecting your children from NOT encouraging your young children (that do not know how not to splash) to go into the water. At 3-4 years old .. its hard not to splash around with your legs in the water ... it is called a feed frenzy for a reason. Like I stated .. they can be mistaken as the sharks food .. It is still stupid because Land Lovers see this .. and they will what? Then when they get frightened they run . they splash and panic ..
This is absolutely scary! Years ago my nephew was attack by a bull shark in Pensacola. He was only around 8 yrs. old at the time & was just wading in the shallow water (not even up to his knees. The shark completely bit off his arm and his uncle pulled the shark to shore & retrieve it which was later reattached. Just about every ounce of blood was lost from his body. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary on his attack & believe me, he not the normal healthy young man this documentary had portrayed his to be. He will never be the same. He will never walk again to say the least. He has suffered brain damage due to loss of blood. No one ever thinks something like this can happen in their family - well think again, it could happen to anyone. The most likely times of a shark attack is early morning or late afternoon, but this does not mean it cannot happen any time of the day or night - so please enter the water with a watchful eye. God bless!
this looks more like they are swimming towards shore because a larger predators are after them. this happens alot, sharks get beached swimming for their life. if could also be a feeding frenzy
+Mike Perrin Never was like this in #Pensacola or anywhere along the Gulf Coast growing up as a kid here. Have noticed a huge uptick in sightings and attacks since the BP Oil Spill Disaster. They capped it, sure. But the damage the Corexit has done by sinking the oil to the bottom of the Gulf is astounding. On top of that we have a #Deadzone in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Hampshire. The Dead Zone is from all the fertilizer and pesticides that ends up in the water from farming up stream.
It's not natural. The whole ocean's ecosystem in the Gulf is is disarray. The Dead Zone was there before the Gulf Oil Disaster. And the Corexit used during clean up is a disaster. Had a shoot canceled in Destin because of Red Tide. Those sharks and schools should be past the 1st sandbar.
I live in Tampa and stay out of the ocean, I have a pool and there i see what swims in it. I leave the ocean and the gulf to the animals which live in it
Great video seeing sharks doing their thing while everyone is out of harms way. Welcome to Florida! I've lived here for 28 years and haven't been lucky enough to see this in person.
As a not for profit Marine Education Society, I would like to ask your permission to post your video with the appropriate links and credits back to you for education purposes.
Living way further south in FL, in the Tampa Bay area, this video has unnerved me enough that it might be a while before I get back in the water again. LOL
I've seen dolphin do the same thing off Sanibel island. Very rare to see this type of activity in that size. i wish i could have identified the type of shark. I'm born and raised in Florida and have been diving for years and I've never seen that. Thanks for sharing.
Agree with the previous poster, these sharks swim with us all year long, they just are not in a school like these are. This is what you call a feeding frenzy; they followed a school of fish to the shore and are attacking as many as possible. These would attack anything in the water now, even a human because in this frenzy, they are reactive and not really knowing or seeing what they are eating. Nature is cool but also dangerous. They feed more and closer at night than day, but snorkeling I have seen 4 or 5 around the second sandbar and further out.
lol i don't think people realize how close they come to fish and sharks when they are swimming. They really aren't usually interested in us but they are near
A few years ago my cousin was walking late at night on PC Beach and met a guy with a tow truck on the beach. The tow truck guy was shark fishing with metal drums for floats, cables, and big shark hooks with bait attached. He used the tow truck to pull in the big sharks. He had a number of really big sharks that he had caught and said the beach association wouldn't allow him to fish during the day when swimmers were in the water because it was bad publicity for the city. He said this was one of the best shark catching places on the Gulf and sold the sharks to a cat food company.
