Get Out Of The Way!!! Shark Coming Through

Photo credit: Scott Carr via The Daily Mail

These sharks showed up to these fishes’ shoal. Record scratch.

The fish don’t want any trouble and give these predators the space they deserve.

These incredible pictures of reef sharks meandering through a shoal of fish were captured by software engineer Scott Carr while he was scouting out photo spots for his wedding on the Western coast of Australia. Lucky for us, he caught these amazing scenes. 

According to the Daily Mail interview with Dr. Ken Collins, Senior Research Fellow and Diving Officer at the University of Southampton :

‘Something big is automatically accepted as a potential threat and swimming in a swirling dense shoal is a defensive move which provides mutual protection simply reducing the chances of an individual being picked off and confusing the potential “enemy”.

‘Flocks of small birds will react the same way to hawks.’

Fish are thought to gain many benefits from shoaling behaviour, such as keeping safe from predators as well as boosting their chances of feeding and finding a mate.

It’s known that shoals of fish can change shapes and directions in seconds – as if they are thinking as one – and in these images, the fish manage to keep a pocket of clear water between themselves and the shark, even the pocket does change shape.

Scott Carr had this to say about his pictures:

‘We noticed a number of reef sharks patrolling the area near the jetty and as we watched the reef sharks slowly moved into the school of fish, with the fish retreating away from the immediate area around the shark.

‘This progressed for about 15 to 20 minutes and a lemon shark joined in on the action late in the piece.

‘It seems like the fish are well aware of the threat and are trying to keep a safer distance from it. They want to avoid being eaten!’

Check out the full story here from the Daily Mail and the rest of Scott Carr’s cool pictures.