Story at a glance
- The bird’s-eye video shot by New York-based scientist Christopher Paparo shows several sharks darting through massively dense schools of Atlantic menhaden and chowing down on the fish.
- Recent shark sightings along New York’s Long Island beaches have alarmed swimmers and local authorities who briefly shut down beaches and sent shark patrols out into the water.
Surreal drone footage captured last week shows sharks feasting on schools of millions of fish off the coast of Southampton, N.Y.
The bird’s-eye video shot by New York-based scientist Christopher Paparo, who manages a marine lab at Stony Brook University, shows several sharks darting through massively dense schools of Atlantic menhaden and chowing down on the fish.
“Huge schools of Atlantic Menhaden attract all sorts of wildlife!” a description of the video on YouTube says.
“On this day, they were being fed upon by blacktip and/or spinner sharks!” the video description says.
Recent shark sightings along New York’s Long Island beaches have alarmed swimmers and local authorities who briefly shut down beaches and sent shark patrols out into the water.
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But some researchers have tried to tamp down fears of sharks, telling The New York Times more sharks are being spotted because more people with smartphones, drones and social media are seeking them out.
But if shark numbers are increasing, Paparo told the Times that would be a positive thing, as it’s an indication the species are bouncing back from overfishing and polluted waters.
“We need sharks,” he told the outlet.
“It shows a healthy ecosystem. We need the top predators as much as we need the menhaden. But that’s not a story that sells. People want the shark attack story,” he said.
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Published on Aug 02,2021