A gruesome underwater buffet drew a pack of hungry sharks to California’s central coast Friday, where drone footage captured the predators tearing into the rotting carcass of a dead whale in a feeding frenzy.
The dramatic video, filmed off Martin’s Beach just south of Half Moon Bay, showed everything from juvenile great white sharks to massive adults circling the floating whale before lunging in to rip off chunks of blubber.
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The predators took turns darting in and out of the animals decomposing carcass like diners at some kind of all-you-can-eat buffet, feasting on the whale — the latest sign of increased shark activity along California’s coastline.
“I spent most of the day filming multiple Great Whites tear apart this whale carcass,” drone operator Sammy Rigling wrote about the action he posted on social media.
“I must have seen 6-8 different sharks throughout the day. A handful of juveniles and 2 or 3 large Whites.”
One shark he estimated was at least 15 feet long. In a second video, he posted a close up of all the action noting that Shark week came early this year.
The area is known as a natural habitat for the great whites.
Experts have said they expect more juvenile white sharks than typical along the coastline of Southern California up to Monterey this summer, due to unusually high ocean temperatures pushing them up the coast from Mexico.
The wild video surfaces just days after two paddle boarders were stalked by a great white, as a drone video showed the predator appearing to track them off the coast of Santa Barbara.
The two were visiting family during Father’s Day weekend and had initially heard about the shark sighting before going off to locate it.
