Aussie dad's hilarious underwater crab cam amuses millions around the world
While dropping his crab nets one day, Andy Burnell decided to attach a GoPro to see what was going on underwater – and then Action Man joined in the fun.
An Aussie dad’s fun underwater camera project — partially inspired by a Christmas ornament — has amused millions of people around the world and left some scratching their heads.
A few years ago, avid diver Andy Burnell was dropping crab nets off the coast of his home town of Adelaide when he decided to attach his GoPro to “see what was happening” when he wasn’t looking. “That sent me down this huge rabbit hole,” the Department for Environment and Water employee told Yahoo News Australia on Wednesday.
Inspired by the curious creatures he saw on the footage, Burnell began working on various structures to hold the camera in place — but it was a “spur of the moment” decision that propelled his Crab.e.cam into online fame.
“One day I was walking out the door to go [fishing] just before Christmas and I just grabbed one of the snowman Christmas ornaments and tied it to the bait thing, and I sent it down to make a Christmas video,” he told Yahoo.
“And then, of course, that started me down this other rabbit hole and I thought it needs a diver.”
Adelaide's Action Man Matt amuses millions
After creating a small shark cage replica, Mr Burnell tried a couple of props before settling on an Action Man figurine.
“Now I’ve got multiple Action Men with different types of diving gear,” he laughed, noting that due to the warmer weather he recently awoke the most popular one — Action Man Matt — from his winter slumber and plonked him back into the ocean, much to amusement of viewers.
Video footage of small sharks and crabs trying to get a nip at Matt during one of his first outings recently was posted on Facebook by the Great Southern Reef Foundation last week, racking up close to three million views.
It even took some people a few minutes to realise the diver was in fact plastic and not surrounded by enormous sea life.
“I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought ‘holy s***, how big is that crab?!’” one man wrote. “This is hilarious... the creativity of the human mind never ceases to amaze me,” another said.
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While Burnell still enjoys taking his usual photographs of marine life, the dad said the playful props provide a bit of fun so he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
“One of the awesome things about the Crab.e.cam is you’re not seeing it live. You set it up, you drop it, or you drag it and and then you get home later that night or the next day, you look through the footage and you just see amazing things,” he told Yahoo.
“Because there’s no driver there to disturb the critters, they’ll come right up to the camera and they’ll interact with each other.” This includes not just crabs but stingrays, squid and little Port Jackson sharks.
In late 2022, Burnell was shocked to discover he had been followed by a juvenile great white for several minutes while on his kayak. Dragging his GoPro in the water beside him, the dad had “no idea” of the potential danger he had been in until he watched the clip back.
As for any future plans for Action Man Matt and the rest of the crew, Mr Burnell said he’s sure he’ll think of something.
“People like it and I enjoy it, it’s silly and it makes me laugh, and I have a bit of fun in trying to think of things to do and set it up. Undoubtedly I’ll do some more with him.... but my main game is I just love sharing the marine life here in Adelaide.”
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