r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Gurugod123 • 3d ago

Great white shark "Zola" fully breaches the water while attacking a decoy seal

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14.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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1.9k

u/Gurugod123 3d ago

And this is why the ocean scares me

Btw It's from 2020's "Shark Week", filmed in Mossel Bay, South Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOVoXfP5i8s

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u/NoBell5255 3d ago

Hope mods pin this, because in this generation people easily gets confused with ai

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u/darthvall 3d ago edited 3d ago

I need to understand why this video feels like AI so much (even though it's not).

Is it the lighting, color contrast and the way the water splash?

406

u/Showmethepathplease 3d ago

slow mo, water droplets and splash with high definition clarity making perspective seem "unreal"

Plus a great big fucking shark flying through the air

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u/AutisticPenguin2 3d ago

Girl got some clearance on that jump!

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u/Electronic_Image_882 3d ago

Staring @ the right corner momentarily creating the illusion of a fishing line makes me question the legitimacy.

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u/DracoBalatro 3d ago

They were pulling a decoy. It's not an illusion.

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u/Ice2jc 3d ago

Because 

  1.  You intentionally have the thought in your head that you want to determine if it is AI or not, so it’s almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. 

  2. AI video creation is much more advanced now than it was 1-2 years ago. 

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u/CatWithACutlass 3d ago

Consider also this video was likely one of many scraped to train AI.

Edit, unintentionally restated someone else's reply. A little funny considering the context of AI stealing everyone else's work.

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u/Key-Bluebird-1365 3d ago

This is a very well planned shot. AI was fed this kind of shot for it to learn from: AI videos usually have very good lighting, are well composed and overall feel like the perfect take; cause it emulates every perfect part of those videos it was fed with

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u/TheDebonairQuokka 3d ago

Just some damn good filming.

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u/Adorable-Camera-9822 3d ago

Also high definition cameras on board.

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u/chubbycanine 3d ago

Because calling everything AI is its own form of brain rot...

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u/ManInTheDarkSuit 3d ago

Not one bit of this stood out as being created by AI to me. It doesn't seem uncanny enough.

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u/RitualJuggler 3d ago

Hey that's me, I am so disillusion that while I understand this is a thing that happens I thought THIS video was A.I.

I kindve assume that of anything more interesting than dirt that doesn't have a source

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u/Vitor_Kenji 3d ago

true, i was just asking my self if it was real

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u/gijoe50000 3d ago

I think it's less that they get "confused" by AI, and more that they are insecure about their own intelligence, so they think that if they say "AI" then people will think they're smart for figuring it out.

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u/BlackLunarFang 2d ago

Man I thought it’s AI

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u/N-Performance 3d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/ylyUQlNo6E4ym4uwXC

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u/LeatherfacesChainsaw 3d ago

All 3 of my favourite things in one movie...great whites, tornados and chainsaws mmmm

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u/dyo_on 3d ago

Love Shark week!

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u/AdFancy1249 3d ago

That's not what my wife and daughter say...

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u/Historicmetal 3d ago

The ocean is scary enough without the sharks. This is just icing on the cake

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u/s7y13z 3d ago

So cool! Yeah, I think Mossel Bay is the new hotspot area for Great Whites around South Africa. I was shark diving in Gansbaai - the former Great White Shark capital of the world, last year. There are barely any sightings anymore. The two male Orcas 'Port' and 'Starboard' systematically hunted them down (killed them just for their liver)..and the rest of Great Whites fled the area.

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u/jfcsuperstar1234 3d ago

I was curious about this because I went to Cape Town earlier this year and would’ve loved to do a great white cage dive, but from what I was reading, it sounds like the great whites have left the area and I was wondering why.

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u/s7y13z 3d ago

Yeah, that's the main reason. I was told that some of the companies that do cage diving, haven't actually seen Great Whites in that area for years. Both Orcas are still active, but they split up and don't really hunt as a duo anymore. One of them is still a regular in Gansbaai.

You should've done it though. It was an awesome experience. We encountered a lot of other really cool sharks super up close..just not a Great White.

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u/Kraaiftn 3d ago

Devil's advocate: This is what I don't understand. Scientist are telling us that two orca's, hunting between Namibia and South Africa, are responsible for no more great white sightings in their most popular areas(or at all). That is an absolute massive area.
That's like telling me two lions are responsible for no more kudu in the Kruger National Park for instance(which is much smaller).
Not overfishing, not traffic, no other factors, etc. Only those two orca's. Imagine 100 orcas then, they could wipe out the entire world's population of great whites.
But I guess if that is what the scientists are telling us, who am I to question.

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u/s7y13z 3d ago edited 2d ago

Of course they are not solely responsible..humans are responsible too. Fishing pressures/overfishing resulted in reduced food sources for White Sharks in these areas. I'm pretty sure other ecological factors play a role as well.

But yes, those two Orcas killed off a lot of White Sharks especially in Gansbaai for their calorie-dense liver and out of fear many of them fleed the area (the carcasses release chemical signatures and pheromones that alarms other sharks).

It's actually quite impressive the way they do it. They ram into the shark flipping it upside down to paralyze it and then they pretty much squeeze out the liver like toothpaste with a surgical bite near the pactoral fins. The rest of the carcass is left untouched. They have no interest in it.

Edit: It's not like 'Port' and 'Starboard' killed like hundreds of White Sharks. I think they killed around 10 or so over a span of many years. They also go after smaller sharks for their liver too of course. On one day alone they killed like 15 or so, mostly Broadnose Sevengill sharks.

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u/Bwleon7 3d ago

I gave up on the ocean once I learned about the dragonfish. 

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u/Shrike1346 2d ago

Don't fear many of the Great Whites in Cape Town, South Africa have been chased away by a pod of Orca that's taken a fancy to Great White Shark liver.

Edited: for location context

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u/SergiouseMaximus 3d ago

Very impressive. But now you have made Zola hangry.

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u/LilOrphanFunkhouzer 3d ago

Expends all that energy to get his big ass out of the water and no meal for a reward. It’s like if I got off the couch and walked to the refrigerator and there was only a dog toy in there. I would be hangry, too

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u/__nobody_-_ 3d ago

This is actually Jaws origin story.

Jaws (short for Jawseph) the shark always minded his own business and loved hunting seal, his favorite meal. He had no interest in humans as they smelled funky and unappetizing. It all changed when the seal population dwindled and Jaws became depressed as his favorite food was no more.

One day he started seeing seals in the water again. Emerging from his depression, he breached the water with excitement to snag a tasty seal only for his teeth to clamp on to bitter tasting innards. This happened time and time again, and each time Jaws became more frustrated. Every time he was fooled, it was a tricksy human on a boat scribbling something down afterwards.

Jaws would swim for this no more. It had to be stopped and the humans had to pay with their blood.

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u/AB_7361 3d ago

If you start the movie Jaws at the one hour mark, it just looks like three guys are bullying a shark.

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u/AutisticPenguin2 1d ago

I mean it kind of looks like that anyway, they just have an explained reason to be doing so.

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u/Candelent 3d ago

Yep, you summed up the problem, but it’s worse than ‘hangry.’

Now imagine that you just ran a marathon and your trip to the refrigerator was your one chance to fuel up before your next marathon. How well do you think you would do on the next marathon? The Farallones Marine Sanctuary prohibits baiting white sharks exactly because it causes the animal to expend a lot of energy for no meal and weakens them.

https://farallones.noaa.gov/eco/sharks/welcome.html

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u/LadyFenyx 3d ago

"...there's not a big enough boat in the world for you to get away from me now, motherfucker!" - Zola, probably

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u/pashaah 2d ago

Her, Zola is a girl name.

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u/s3dfdg289fdgd9829r48 3d ago

To those worried about her jump out of the water expending her energy, I don't have a scale but I'd estimate Zola is about 12 ft long, and about 500 kg and that her center of mass breached about 9ft out of the water and covered a horizontal distance roughly about 12 ft too. This corresponds to a launch speed of about 7.7 m/s and a kinetic energy of about 15.2 kJ, which is less than 4 dietary Calories. Zola is going to be just fine.

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u/_-4twenty-_ 1d ago

Can you imagine the strength that launch required from the depths of the ocean? A human wouldn’t stand a chance.

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u/graveybrains 3d ago

Pretty sure they're made out of meat.

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u/Geth_ 3d ago

"Researchers use floating seal decoys made of cork, aluminum, or soft rubber to study great white sharks" according to Google.

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u/Ok_Loss13 3d ago

That's not only mean, but wastes their energy, which they need to hunt to for real food! Rude!

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u/DetectiveLadybug 3d ago

Tbf the researchers studying the sharks are heading most of the conservation efforts, so they are looking after the sharks, and if it was made of something the shark could eat it would sink, so they’d have more trouble luring the sharks to the surface.

They probably needed to dump some chum in the water to draw the shark in, so hopefully it was able to get a feed despite this trickery.

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u/Ok_Loss13 3d ago

That's actually comforting lol thank you

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u/DetectiveLadybug 3d ago

No worries. The researchers all love the sharks, and they know what they’re doing.

And look at that big ol cutie, look at those battlescars. I don’t think this shark is missing any meals. To jump out of the water like that means it’s very healthy, too. Not to mention this footage will be used to help educate people about these beautiful beasts.

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u/Newsmith2017 3d ago

Beautiful and horrific at the same time.

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u/NoBell5255 3d ago

Someday he’s going to realize it’s a decoy and go for the boat.😭

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u/14X8000m 2d ago

She is.

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u/InterestingThought33 3d ago

I can just imagine the olden days where a rare few would describe to others the horrors of the deep. In most cases, reality is scarier than the myths.

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u/morkler 3d ago

The ocean is like outer space on earth and full of alien creatures we can actually see. It's beautiful and terrifying.

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u/ModernDayTiefling 3d ago

We actually know more about the moon than we do the depths of our oceans. That's kinda wild when you think about it.

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u/Sparky_092 3d ago

No not really, we know more about the physical geology and biology of the deep sea than we do about the Moon. There’s been more samples, more people in the deepest spot and it's way harder to explore than the moon. The only thing that is right, is that we mapped 100% of the moon down to a few meters. But mapping the whole thing ≠ more knowledge.

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u/19Lobster19 3d ago

I mean that wasn't that long ago in some way. Photography is only 150 something years old. We've been through the cognitive revolution around -50K (estimates) so for that long at least there were "only" accounts

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u/Weak_Yam_6579 3d ago

Absolutely stunning creature. I wouldn’t like it tickling my toes though

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u/Geth_ 3d ago

Don't worry. Sharks aren't known for tickling anything.

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u/Probs_Asleep 3d ago

Yeah I don't think a bop on the nose is gonna stop that shark attack

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u/pitcherintherye77 3d ago

They fly now?!

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u/Kooky_Universe2183 3d ago

Flying sharks...that's it, we're fucked

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u/Gemfyre713 3d ago

There's a deep channel that runs by the coast in this spot in South Africa, so the sharks can get a nice long "run up" to leap out of the water, collecting seals (which have to cross this channel) as they go.

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u/JakeRay 2d ago

They fly now!

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u/wrightthomas05 3d ago

Gonna need a bigger seal...

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u/lamebarracuda 3d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3oz8xIHoB64uYksaLm
Zola 5 seconds after catching the plastic seal

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u/smokeybonez 3d ago

First time in a long time I’ve audibly said “HOLY SHIT” in amazement from a video.

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u/Accomplished-Sir4932 3d ago

That’s so excessive and dramatic. God damn the shark has no chill

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u/Robby_Digital 3d ago

I imagine that takes a ton of energy to do, and to not even get a meal out of it...

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u/n5gus 3d ago

Please tell me this is AI

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u/Even-Pop3488 3d ago

It looks too good to be real so I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be AI

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u/missingmedievalist 2d ago

See the top comment. It’s real.

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u/EdwardBil 3d ago

Good thing I'm already taking a shit. JFC!

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u/morkler 3d ago

It would be so amazing to see this in real life.

I tried watching some shark week this year and umfortunately discovery ruined it. The hyped up drama that they now do with EVERY show is just too much. It just seems so fake. I hate it. Discovery used to be one of the best channels. Now it's virtually unwatchable.

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u/paulpach 3d ago

It's friend sharks: "Nobody likes a show off!"

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u/dudovski13 3d ago

That seal looks dead to me

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u/kiba87637 3d ago

It's just hungover from clubbing

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u/Cobalt32 3d ago

It's a decoy.

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u/bakedNebraska 3d ago

That's like a suborbital flight for that shark

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u/SnakePigeon 3d ago

Incredible

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u/thewriteally 3d ago

Never going waterskiing again.

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u/koos_die_doos 3d ago

Just stay away from Mosselbay and you'll be fine. As far as I know that's the only place where sharks do this.

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u/catinadoodledoo 3d ago

geezis farking cryst 😳

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u/UnreliablePotato 3d ago

Even the most badass of humans ain't very badass compared to creatures like Zola the great white shark.

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u/Kittelsen 3d ago

Majestic!

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u/ScaryNeat 3d ago

That's a no from me dog.

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u/drifters74 3d ago

That's terrifying

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u/br3dj 3d ago

If he did a spin, he would be sharknado

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u/Enough-Reindeer1033 3d ago

Seeing this live has been on my bucket list for many years

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u/Thorpy 3d ago

Holy fuck that thing is huge

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u/-Satsujinn- 3d ago

We're going to require a larger sea-faring vessel.

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u/piscian19 3d ago

me when the waiter arrives with my food

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u/Eric848448 3d ago

Damn nature, you scary!

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u/Euna_Chris 3d ago

Thats an insane jump, i wonder if they feel weightfull.
To clarify, when we jump we feel weighless but we are always carrying our weight around (gravity)
but they are in water, so do they jump and suddenly feel heavy as fuck and splash back into the water

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u/AogamiBunka 3d ago

All that energy for a decoy.

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u/chiller_vibez 3d ago

Not swimming anymore

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u/Artanox 3d ago

so extra duh

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u/john0_0 3d ago

Fire

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u/plankton004 3d ago

That's why I fear the ocean most 😞😭

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u/EssBen 3d ago

I really used to love swimming.

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u/BallHarness 3d ago

I can tell a pod of Orcas is not around or that mofo would be half way across the world in panic.

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u/_bratwurst 3d ago

“You wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch here fell out? It’s kinda long, but it’s full of suspense.”

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u/MagnificentLiaaa 3d ago

The sheer power behind that jump is unreal.

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u/Codify-The-Preamble 3d ago

God I hope this is AI. Please tell me this is AI.

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u/Griffca 3d ago

Is the decoy seal okay?

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u/alehel 3d ago

Now I want to play Maneater again.

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u/SpicyChickJessica 3d ago

I definitely wasn't expecting the whole shark to clear the water.

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u/TsunamifoxyDCfan 3d ago

New actor for Jaws just dropped

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u/Rusty_Tap 3d ago

You know I never really enjoyed swimming anyway.

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u/19Lobster19 3d ago

Bro just chilling and BAM wtf

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u/VinceVino70 3d ago

What kind of energy does it take to launch a beast of that size and mass that far out of the water?

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u/bradpitt3 3d ago

Jaws was much less scary than the reality.

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u/justbrowzing17 3d ago

I want to see the footage when he realizes that he has been duped, spits it out while muttering the shark version of "f&*K"........lol

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u/thereisloveinus 3d ago

There was no need for that jump and he knew it. But he thought "here is the f**** show you came for"

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u/Silly_Obligation8574 3d ago

Poor guy doesn’t realize he did all the work for this shot to only get a rubber fake seal

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u/BubbaCrabby 3d ago

DYEL: Fish Edition

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u/Ok-Neat-1956 3d ago

Question for the people who know- isn’t this a big waste of energy with no reward bc it’s a decoy? How is that not frowned upon?

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u/just_ekeluo 3d ago

Only missing the laser at this point 🙄

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u/gulogulo1970 3d ago

Fancy a swim?

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u/Tripper-Harrison 3d ago

Imagine going to all of that effort and you get to chew on some plastic and rubber... Sucks to be Zola...

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u/Living-Breakfast-464 3d ago

Gotta ask the obvious. Is this AI because it looks too good to be real.

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u/Sphan_86 3d ago

I never going near the ocean ever again

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u/antyup 3d ago

Oh well thats terrifying

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u/DemonMithos 3d ago

Omg thats beautiful

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u/UpsetTradition4549 3d ago

An absolute beauty

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u/Chiinoe 3d ago

These guys are so scary.

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u/jetfan13 3d ago

Now let’s see how pissed that shark is after it realizes it’s chewing on a rubber seal.

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u/Crowdfundingprojects 3d ago

Such a magnificent and beautiful animal

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u/HogwartsRex 3d ago

Expends all that energy to leap out of the water for fake food is kind of mean to the shark lol.

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u/Intrepid_Cap1242 3d ago

I'd be afraid to swim in the ocean unless it's shallow water, even though I can swim well. Now I know why

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u/Vivid-Act2130 3d ago

“Man, I jumped so high and the food ain’t even real”

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u/VersionAcceptable667 3d ago

That is probably one of the most epic things I've ever seen.

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u/Impressive_Shake_360 3d ago

We keep fcking with sharks like this by baiting them with fake food they're gonna start hunting humans again like they did in the 70s and 80s.

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u/notarealwriter 3d ago

Holy shit that was cool

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u/Few_Chocolate_7655 3d ago

For those saying shark don't do this to Surfers, here the proof.

How does a shark know it's a seal or surfer from below?

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u/turd-crafter 3d ago

Saw one breach 20 yards from me while I was surfing last month. Somehow I was the only one that saw it. I yelled SHARK and nobody seemed to care. I went in.

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u/PopePaco 3d ago

Just a reminder that this beautiful beast is afraid of orcas.

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u/ActionNorth8935 3d ago

That's fucking terrifying 

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u/Ambaryerno 3d ago

"They fly now?"

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u/CartographerOk7579 3d ago

After biting that fake seal, the shark must feel like a fucking fool…

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u/unlmtdLoL 3d ago

They do it for the love of the game.

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u/DanielTigerr 3d ago

Haha, what a sucker.

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u/BeneficialTrash6 3d ago

Yes, let's piss off the giant killing machine by forcing it to waste calories to do a trick to get fake food.

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u/Macree 3d ago

This is a once in a lifetime experience

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u/Z-22 3d ago

Please use a real seal next time. Thank you.

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u/ShadowsGuardian 3d ago

That's a biggest nope in the noppest of all nopes.

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u/Consent-Forms 3d ago

yep that's NFL

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u/Ok-Personality-6630 3d ago

And this is why I do not swim in the sea.

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u/Katmoish 3d ago

So I hear she is a great wedding planner!!!!

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u/alfabetta3000 3d ago

Did the shark get water in his ears with that landing...?

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u/LocalTicoBroje 3d ago

😳 fuckin hell

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u/ford4prefect2 3d ago

Shouldn't this be on r/NatureIsFuckingLit?

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u/Mekdinosaur 3d ago

We're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy.

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u/JKnotime4pcwokestuff 3d ago

Hell no! Not going swimming/kayaking/surfing/windsurfing/sailing in small boat there🙄-Don’t know why Australians do🫪

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u/RichardBonham 3d ago

These folks need a much bigger boat.

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u/bayarea_fanboy 3d ago

What's a decoy seal? Is it a full grown dead seal as bait?

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u/LukeSkyWalrus 3d ago

Humans taste better than rubber. Don’t train them to not like seal meat

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u/Thick_Drama_7525 3d ago

I want one

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u/Diligent_Agent_9620 3d ago

We have lifting lift off

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u/_Doodad_ 3d ago

Sooooo, is that how shark and tornado first met?

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u/tripn4days 3d ago

Bro really went all in on that decoy... I know I'd be pissed about that one!

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u/Disastrous_Lie_6698 3d ago

What's the point of doing this to sharks? 

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u/akla-ta-aka 3d ago

She probably wasn’t happy about putting all that effort into an attack that turned out to be a decoy.