A viral YouTube clip has given viewers a close-up look inside a great white shark’s mouth, and it is every bit as unnerving as you might imagine.
The footage was posted in May by Carlos Gauna, the marine wildlife photographer better known online as The Malibu Artist, after a late-April trip out on a kayak off the coast of Southern California.
Gauna, who regularly documents shark activity along the California coast, had an underwater camera in the water to film sea life, capturing several impressive moments beneath the surface before the encounter unfolded.
One sequence in particular stands out, showing a great white shark moving in quickly and following the camera from only around ten feet away.
That alone would have been an extraordinary shot, but what followed was even more surprising, especially for someone with Gauna’s level of experience around sharks.
Speaking to KTLA, he said the encounter was unlike anything he had seen before.
“I’ve been around them a lot,” he told the outlet. “They don’t normally come at you like that.”
Moments later, the shark chomped down on the camera, creating a chaotic burst of movement, crunching, and a brief glimpse from inside its mouth.
“Was she there? She’s there…” Carlos said. “Holy cow, did she bite it?”
Gauna said he felt a tug when the shark grabbed the camera for a few seconds before letting it go again. The camera’s protective dome was cracked, but the setup appears to have survived the encounter.
“You know, for the most part, the white sharks, especially here in Southern California, don’t really want anything to do with us,” he said.
“I see swimmers, surfers, people around white sharks all the time.”
He explained in the video that the shark looked to be around seven to eight feet long and, fortunately, had no interest in keeping the camera for long.
The bite happened during a day Gauna described as especially active offshore, with plenty of bait in the water and sea lion activity nearby, conditions that can draw predators closer to the surface.
Considering what happened, it is impressive that the equipment appears to have survived the encounter without damage severe enough to stop the footage from being shared.
Gauna also described the filming setup he usually uses while out on the water.
“It depends on the day, but I typically like to have three cameras going, an aerial drone, and a couple cameras on the kayak and maybe even one on my person sometimes.
“Not knowing where the shark is, and I look back, and the shadow of the shark is right there. By the time I got comms with him, all I can hear is my buddy yelling, ‘He got the camera! He got the camera!’”
He added that even after years spent observing sharks, this was a first for him.
“There was a lot of bait in the water that day, a lot of sea lion activity,” the YouTuber went on to say. “Perfect situation for an encounter like that.”
For Gauna, the incident was a rare and startling reminder that even when sharks are being carefully filmed, they remain wild animals capable of surprising anyone who gets too close.