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 a feeding portion of a tourist excursion in the Bahamas, taking the device on a journey through its inner workings.
As the phone floats through the tiger shark, specifically through the folds of the ghostly pale white skin of its digestive tract, you can see the insides of its gills pulsating along the walls of its pharynx.
But Jitterbug coughed up the cell phone, the iPhone, sealed in a waterproof case, before moving beyond this last part of the oral cavity to the muscles that control the esophagus.
In the short clip, Jitterbug soon discovers that the glassy and metallic Apple device is not food, causing it to quickly fall to the ocean floor.
The iPhone belonged to the captain of the excursion, who was amazed that his iPhone camera managed to keep rolling and collected incredible footage from Jitterbug’s mouth.
Above, the interior of Jitterbug, the tiger shark, captured by cell phone camera, specifically the pharyngeal area between the mouth and esophagus
On the right, Jitterbug, the tiger shark, goes after buddy, as he would later go after photographer Ken Kiefer’s iPhone. Left, Dave Finch, another member of the Dolphin Dream Team
Marine scientists describe the movements seen in this tiger shark’s mouth as ‘buccal pumping’, referring to the creature’s buccal cheek muscles.
“Buccal pumping,” according to an explainer from the University of Hawaii, “is what fish use to move water over their gills when they’re not swimming.”
When swimming fast enough, tiger sharks like Jitterbug also use a technique called “ram ventilation” to move water over their gills and draw oxygen from the water to breathe.
“When swimming quickly, fish such as sharks and tuna open both their mouths and their gill openings to continuously allow water to pass through their gills,” the university noted.
As Jitterbug spat out the phone, her rows of serrated teeth can be seen, which are flatter in tiger sharks than in other species and have distinct primary and secondary serrations that can be used to distinguish individual shark teeth by species.
The iPhone belonged to Dave Finch, who worked with Texas-based undersea photographer Ken Kiefer on the shark tour.
“This devious girl,” Kiefer explained in a Facebook post“grabbed Finch’s camera and tried to take some selfies.”
“I saw the shark chewing on the body of the phone,” Kiefer continued. “I thought the phone was gone,” he added, “and then I saw (Jitterbug) spit it out.”
“She took it. Then he chewed, dropped, grabbed again and dropped,” he said.
Pictured is the iPhone briefly floating in Jitterbug’s mouth
Above is another still from the footage taken in the Bahamas visitor Jitterbug, the tiger shark
“In the top photo you can see Finch in the reflection of his dome,” Kiefer said.
“And in the bottom photo, Jitterbug looks like she’s a little embarrassed about being caught being naughty.”
Staff from the Dolphin Dream Team, which organizes trips to Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, have named some of the site’s repeat water visitors, including tiger sharks Jitterbug, Emma and Natalie, “each with their own personality.”
‘Passengers and crew unite to keep an eye on who is where and when’ Dolphin Dream Team talked about their work monitoring Jitterbug and the region’s other tiger sharks.
“Being able to see the subtle differences in skin patterns or scars is something for very trained eyes,” the tour group continued. ‘We can learn migration patterns. We can find out if (a) shark is still alive.”
Despite being common in popular movies and TV, shark attacks are – according to Dr. Robert Latour, professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science – quite rare.
“A person is much more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bitten by a shark,” said Dr. Latour CBS News last year.
The marine scientist cited data from the University of Florida showing that there were 57 unprovoked bites worldwide in 2022, a significantly lower figure than the ten-year average of 74 unprovoked bites per year.
Above, a still image from the video taken by Kiefer’s iPhone during a freak accident off the coast of the Bahamas – in which Apple’s mobile device entered the deadly mouth of a tiger shark
As Jitterbug (pictured) spits out the phone, her rows of serrated teeth can be seen, which are flatter in tiger sharks than in other species – and have distinct primary and secondary serrations that can be used to distinguish individual shark teeth by species
But the US tops the charts when it comes to unprovoked shark bites, accounting for about 72 percent of the world’s recorded cases in 2022.
And of those, Florida was responsible for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s unprovoked attacks.
Australia came in second for unprovoked shark bites in 2022, accounting for almost 16 percent of the annual total.
But the Commonwealth nation reported no shark-related fatalities.
If you ever find yourself (or your phone) in a dangerous encounter with a shark, Dr. Latour says there are best practices for surviving the ordeal.
“The best approach is to remain calm and defend yourself,” he said. ‘Maintain eye contact with the shark and use a hard object or your hands to poke the nose, gills and eyes.’
“If you see the shark before an attack,” Dr. Latour continued, “position yourself so as to avoid a bite to the neck or face.”
It was important, he emphasized, not to strike and flee, behavior that could signal to a shark that you are wounded prey: “Work on getting out of the water as quickly as possible, but don’t turn around.” turn your back and swim,” he said. advised.