Video shows great white shark weaving between surfers
A photographer who has shared incredible footage of a great white shark swimming among a group of surfers insists fatal attacks, like the one in Sydney, will remain an "extremely rare event".
Scott Fairchild, who's been swimming with sharks his entire life, shared drone footage on his Instagram page this week which showed a 2.5m shark dodging and weaving between surfboards in crystal clear waters off San Diego in the US.
The surfers remain calm and even approach the shark as it swims around them.
"Most Whites will turn off, going back out to deeper water, pretty quickly when they come near a surfer," he wrote alongside the post.
"She however never seems to mind just zigzagging through the line-up. But as you can see, she does her best to keep her distance from each of them, equal separation, and even dives down a little bit with zero aggression or confrontation."
Mr Fairchild said the shark in the video was a juvenile who's been swimming in the area for about five or six months.
And in this case, the surfers in the water were aware of the shark but weren't worried.
"She's average, she's a juvenile so she's not one of the big ones we get coming through," he told Yahoo News Australia.
"She's probably about eight feet or so, maybe nine. We have a lot of babies come along that are five feet long, but I see some 14 footers (4m) cruising through."
Sydney shark attack an 'extremely rare event'
Despite the tragic fatal shark attack at a Sydney beach on Wednesday, Mr Fairchild said shark attacks, "while horrifying, are extremely rare".
"Sharks are predators for sure but we are not on their menu, not a part of their diet and they do not actively hunt us," he said.
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"Sadly curiosity bites and mistaken attacks do happen, but it’s incomprehensibly rare considering the amount of daily interactions.
"We have a lot of great whites here, as many as 30 [at a time], typically in the fall. But now there's only four or five living in the area.
"All of the local surfers know they're there and still go out and surf every day. I see them all the time and people just swim around them. They surf right next to them."
There have been two fatal shark attacks in California in the past two years, both involving great whites and surfers.
People who saw the clip were fascinated by the closeness of the shark and humans.
"I actually gasped watching this," one person wrote
"The way she navigates through them, just stunning! Love the mutual respect with all creatures in this video," said another.
Diver's incredible reaction after shark races up to her
This comes as a brave diver shared her incredible interaction with an 'unpredictable' shark after it swam at her with extraordinary speed, preparing to 'snap [its] mouth open'.
Andriana Fragola, who goes by Andriana Marine on TikTok and Instagram, is a shark safety diver and also a marine biologist who shares jaw-dropping videos online.
In a recent clip shared with her 25,000 followers, Ms Fragola is seen diving in the deep water off Hawaii surrounded by a shiver of sharks with one racing towards her in a vertical motion.
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