Chilling Footage Shows Baby Sharks Feasting Upon a Fish Carcass — Then Comes a Dramatic Plot Twist

A dramatic episode unfolded in the summer of 2019. Off the coast of South Carolina, NOAA Ocean Explorer (@oceanexplorer)’s researchers had installed a camera-equipped instrument to keep an eye on the creatures prowling in the deep waters. Between June and July, their cameras recorded footage that left them knocked sideways in confounding fascination. Nature is brutal, and after watching this footage, millions of people around the world know it. It was the month of June, and NOAA’s remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer (D2) was investigating a topographic rise, initially thought to be an ancient shipwreck from World War II.

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer contributed its telepresence capabilities to capture crystal clear pictures of the deep sea. All of a sudden, at a depth of about 1,476 feet, they witnessed a “once in a lifetime event” erupting like a startling plot twist. The episode opened to reveal the seafloor, illuminated only by the flashing lights of the camera and the satellite dome attached to D2. Sprawled on the seabed was the carcass of a dead swordfish, approximately 8 feet long. The carcass lay upside down with its head nestling in a cluster of underwater weeds. A deep-sea dogfish shark seemed to be busy butchering the carcass.

Initially, there was just one shark, but then another appeared, and within a few moments, the camera was displaying at least 11 sharks, all of whom were greedily chomping on the dead fish, unaware that their crime was being observed on a live camera. At one point, the camera zoomed to show a close-up of one of these sharks, which, with its mouth twisted, was vigorously chomping upon the bones and the flesh of the dead creature.

And although a voiceover interpreted the entire scene from the perspective of nature’s super-intelligent “carbon transfer” system, the spooky music playing in the backdrop added much suspense to the drama unfolding. Once the dinner was devoured to satisfaction and the carcass was almost gone, the episode jolted the audience into a jarring plot twist. While the camera focused on the swordfish carcass outspread and discarded on the sea floor, a new character emerged on the screen: the bad guy, a.k.a. a glossy purplish wreckfish.

The scientists monitoring the camera that patrolled the entire scene screamed in unison, “Oh my God!” A shot captured from a certain angle showed the wicked wreckfish gliding around with a live shark trapped in its mouth. Clinging between its lips, the silver-white shark was flailing its body, refusing to die. Everyone knows what became of the little silver-white shark. “Baby shark doo do do....crunch,” as user @linzoconnor described it in a comment. Commenting on the visuals, another user, @jeffday, said, “The grouper giving absolutely zero f***s about the wriggling shark sticking out of its mouth was excellent!”

To add to the suspense of the episode, scientist Peter Auster shared with CNN that these baby sharks likely travelled a long way to feed on the swordfish carcass, in a process called “food fall.” The rare event, he said, unleashes more questions than answers about what scientists and marine biologists think and understand about ocean life. This “feeding frenzy” episode illustrates, in perfect detail, the circle of life. The shark feasted upon the swordfish, and then it got feasted upon by this bigger wreckfish guy.

More on Green Matters

Researchers Spot Unexpected ‘Smiling’ Visitors When They Dropped a Cow 1,629 Meters Into the Sea

Scientists in Disbelief After Spotting a Rare Whale Carcass at the Bottom of the Antarctic Ocean

Researchers Drop a Camera Into the World’s Second-Deepest Marine Trench. A Rare Encounter Occurs