Don’t panic, avoid sudden movements, curl into a ball, and punch eyes and gills – there is a lot of information on how to act during an encounter with sharks, but it seems the most useful advice is to…(go to a swimming pool instead) stay alert, because sharks are ambush predators and a video that recently resurfaced online shows how masterfully sharks manage to sneak up behind people.
The footage in question was captured in 2018 near Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico. The video shows a female diver in a cage unaware that a four-metre-long great white shark is approaching her from behind.
Martin Graf, who owns the excursion company Shark Diver, said the great white took the woman by surprise. The colouring of these apex predators enables them to ambush their prey, said Graf.
"If [sharks] come from below, the grey is not easy to spot against the dark below them and if they come from the direction of the sun, their white belly blends in as well. It is absolutely amazing how these massive animals can come out of nowhere", Graf told the Daily Star.
Graf revealed that despite his extensive experience of swimming with sharks, he has himself had "out of nowhere" encounters with the creatures.
"I was watching 'Scarboard' – one of our biggest females at around 19ft – and 'Tzitzimitl' came up from behind me and very slowly swam just inches past my right shoulder", Graf said.