‘Highly rare’ and ‘charismatic’ sea creatures spotted off Cayman Islands, video shows
In the crystalline blue waters off the coast of the Cayman Islands, some elusive predators approached a contraption that smelled of prey. Unbeknownst to them, something was watching them.
Wildlife officials had set up a baited underwater camera to monitor local sea life, according to a Jan. 8 Facebook post from the United Kingdom’s Blue Belt Programme. The setup attracted and filmed several “highly rare oceanic-white tip sharks.”
A video shows the oceanic whitetip sharks. The footage appears to include four different clips.
The first shark appears from below the camera, swims around the bait and vanishes off the right-hand side of the camera, the video shows. The second shark approaches the bait and spends several seconds investigating the contraption before leaving.
“You’ve got this beautiful video of what is really a charismatic megafauna for us,” John Bothwell of the Cayman Islands Department of Environment told the PA news agency, according to the Independent, a UK news outlet.
The third shark circles the bait from a distance before briefly approaching and vanishing. The last shark nudges the bait with its nose before gliding almost off camera. A moment later, its tail flashes across the edge of the camera’s view.
Officials did not specify how many oceanic whitetip sharks were seen.
Oceanic whitetip sharks can reach up to 11 feet in length and have distinct white-tinged fins, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They live “offshore in deep water” and are capable of deep dives “but spend most of their time in the upper part of the water column near the surface.”
These sharks are “usually solitary” and critically endangered, the Blue Belt Programme said. Over the last 60 years, “accidental fishing” and targeted fin harvesting have led to a decline of “up to 98%” of the species’ population.
The Blue Belt Programme is run by the U.K. government to support “the protection and sustainable management” of oceans in the country’s overseas territories, according to its website.
The Cayman Islands are a British island chain in the Caribbean, about 250 miles south of Cuba.
This story was originally published January 11, 2024 at 1:38 PM with the headline "‘Highly rare’ and ‘charismatic’ sea creatures spotted off Cayman Islands, video shows."
