Lifeguard Captures Moment Great White Shark Sinks Teeth Into A Dead 17-Foot Whale

A lifeguard has calmly filmed the moment a great white shark attempts to sink its teeth into a dead whale in the ocean:

The footage was captured by Jake Kolar, a 21-year-old lifeguard from Long Island, NY, who was 300 yards offshore after he and a colleague had gone to investigate why the whale was floating aimlessly in the ocean.

His video which at one point shows the menacing predator making contact with his jet ski by swimming under its pool raft has so far gained over 250k views on Tik Tok.

Jake explained: "We were sitting in the tower watching the water when we saw a dead whale floating in, we had two jet skis to go out about 300 yards offshore and that's where we saw the shark."

"We were pumped when we saw it, we figured there was something eating the dead whale and when we got out there we didn't see anything for about 90 seconds then it came up and we were stoked."

The duo remained relatively calm throughout the video, which took place on 31 July.

Jake commented: "I wasn't too scared, it had no interest in us, it was occupied with its meal. The shark was nipping and eating the whale all of the way into the shore till the whale washed up onto the beach."

Earlier this year, another great white was filmed attacking and drowning a humpback whale, with wildlife experts saying they believe it's the first recording ever of such an incident.

The 14ft shark was seen hunting a 33ft humpback whale, which was in ill health. These whales need to watch their backs when they're feeling under the weather.

The great white was recognised as one researchers had named Helen, having been tagged by marine biologist Ryan Johnson as part of a 2013 study he was leading.

According to Johnson, who witnessed the drama unfold, the attack lasted 50 minutes before the whale eventually succumbed and died.

He told Newsweek: "The idea that I was witnessing a live predation event slowly arrived when I started watching the shark trying to bite onto the whale's tail area.

"I honestly did not quite compute what a unique event it was until afterwards."

Featured Image Credit: Jam Press

Topics: News, Animals, shark, News, Animals, shark

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94