The fear of being eaten by a shark has come to life in a new video.
A tiger shark, named Jitterbug, accidentally swallowed an iPhone during part of a tourist feeding excursion in the Bahamas, taking the device on a journey through its inner workings.
As the phone floats through the tiger shark, specifically the folds of the ghostly pale white skin of its digestive tract, the inner side of its gills can be seen pulsing along the walls of its pharynx.
But Jitterbug coughed up the iPhone, sealed in a waterproof case, before moving beyond this last region of the oral cavity to the muscles that control the esophagus.
In the short clip, Jitterbug quickly discovers that the glassy, metallic Apple device is not food, and quickly drops it to the bottom of the ocean.
The iPhone belonged to the tour captain, who was surprised that his iPhone’s camera managed to keep recording, collecting incredible images of the inside of Jitterbug’s mouth.
Above, the inside of Jitterbug the tiger shark, captured on cell phone camera, specifically the pharynx region between the mouth and esophagus.
On the right, Jitterbug the tiger shark chases his friend as he would later chase photographer Ken Kiefer’s iPhone. On the left, Dave Finch, another member of the Dolphin Dream Team.
Marine scientists describe the movements observed inside this tiger shark’s mouth as “mouth pumping,” after the creature’s buccal cheek muscles.
“Mouth pumping,” according to an explainer at the University of Hawaii, “is what fish use to move water over their gills when they are not swimming.”
When they swim fast enough, tiger sharks like Jitterbug also use a technique called “ram ventilation” to move water over their gills, extracting oxygen from the water to breathe.
“When swimming fast, fish such as sharks and tunas open their mouths and gill openings to continually let water pass through their gills,” the university noted.
When Jitterbug spit out the phone, you can see its rows of serrated teeth, which are flatter in tiger sharks than in other species and have distinct primary and secondary teeth that can be used to distinguish loose shark teeth by species.
The iPhone belonged to Dave Finch, who was working with Texas-based underwater photographer Ken Kiefer on the shark tour.
“This devious girl,” as Kiefer explained in a Facebook post‘he grabbed Finch’s camera and was trying to take some selfies.’
“I was watching the shark chew through the phone case,” Kiefer continued. “I realized the phone was gone,” he added, “and then I saw (Jitterbug) spit it out.”
‘She grabbed him. “Then he chewed, dropped, grabbed again and dropped,” she said.
The photo shows the iPhone floating briefly in Jitterbug’s mouth.
Above, another image of footage taken inside the Bahamas visitor, Jitterbug, the tiger shark.
“In the photo above you can see Finch in the reflection of his dome,” Kiefer said.
“And in the bottom photo, Jitterbug seems to be a little embarrassed that she got caught being naughty.”
Staff at Dolphin Dream Team, which organizes excursions to Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, have named several of the site’s recurring aquatic visitors, including tiger sharks Jitterbug, Emma and Natalie, “each with their own personality.”
“Passengers and crew come together to control who is where and when.” Dolphin Dream Team explained his work helping to monitor Jitterbug and the other tiger sharks in the region.
“Being able to see the subtle differences in skin patterns or scars is something that requires very trained eyes,” the tour group continued. ‘We can learn migration patterns. “We can tell if a shark is still alive.”
Despite their prevalence in popular movies and television, shark attacks (according to Dr. Robert Latour, professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science) are quite rare.
“An individual is much more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a shark,” Dr. Latour said. CBS News last year.
The marine scientist cited data from the University of Florida showing that in 2022 there were 57 unprovoked stings worldwide, significantly lower than the 10-year average of 74 unprovoked stings per year.
Above, a still image from video captured by Kiefer’s iPhone during a freak accident in the Bahamas, during which the Apple mobile device entered the deadly mouth of a tiger shark.
When Jitterbug (pictured) spit out the phone, you can see its rows of serrated teeth, which are flatter in tiger sharks than in other species, and have distinct primary and secondary teeth that can be used to differentiate loose shark teeth. by species.
But the United States tops the charts for unprovoked shark bites, accounting for about 72 percent of those recorded worldwide in 2022.
And, of those, Florida accounted for nearly 40 percent of the unprovoked attacks in the country.
Australia ranked second in terms of unprovoked shark bites in 2022, accounting for almost 16 percent of the year’s total.
But the Commonwealth nation reported no shark-related deaths.
If you ever find yourself (or your phone) in a dangerous encounter with a shark, Dr. Latour says there are best practices for surviving this ordeal.
“The best thing is to stay calm and defend yourself,” he said. “Maintain eye contact with the shark and use a hard object or your hands to poke its nose, gills and eyes.”
“If you see the shark before an attack,” Dr. Latour continued, “position yourself in a way that prevents it from biting your neck or face.”
It was important, he emphasized, not to flail and flee, behaviors that could signal to a shark that you are injured prey: “Strive to get out of the water as quickly as possible, but don’t turn your back and swim away,” he said. advised.