How to Put a Camera on a Tiger Shark

[Mark Thorpe]

First: Take one ballsy south African by the name of Mark Addison

Second: Jump in a soup of sharks and critters waiting for 'Big Momma' Tiger

Three: Get head on with a 10ft Tiger Shark to compose image with Ballsy chappie

Four: Get ballsy chappies to deploy camera by hand over the dorsal fin of 'Big Momma'

Five: Exit water and wait for camera to pop off and download images and data.

Having a blast.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Elijah Kelley]

How do you get it back?:umm: oh just read complete post. sounds crazy.

 

[BASSAM MSSALATIE]

I DO love extremly job maniacs ,, be carefull man .good bless you .:turned:
it is dangerous job :sad:

 

[Jason Sturgis]

Mark,
Looks wild..I am sure you guys got some amazing footage. I was up in alaska when the critter boys were putting cameras on Humpbacks. They had the fortune of using a pole to place the camera. That and the subject had baleen instead of rows of nasties. Keep sending the wicked shots.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

First: Take one ballsy south African by the name of Mark Addison

Second: Jump in a soup of sharks and critters waiting for 'Big Momma' Tiger

Three: Get head on with a 10ft Tiger Shark to compose image with Ballsy chappie

Four: Get ballsy chappies to deploy camera by hand over the dorsal fin of 'Big Momma'

Five: Exit water and wait for camera to pop off and download images and data.

Having a blast.

Cheers,
Mark.

Very, very, impressive Mark.

I'm sure everybody would like to see the footage even if it is too hard to watch it (diverse tech problems, shark's super speed movement, etc...).

If it's not wireless footage from "sharkcorder" enabled streaming camera then maybe we have to wait till they would picked up the cam from the shark.

If ever.

Hope she/he is the still alive?!

 

[Petr Dvorak]

mmmm... footage? plz

I was amazed by footage from camera attached to sperm whale body from deeeeep dives. Can't remember title of documentary, but it was one of the best I ever seen.

 

[Poi Boy]

Mark you and your friend are crazy mo fos ! Good adrenaline rush I imagine.
Aloha
-A

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Love the work and study the subject well. I knew that lobotomy would come i handy one day!! I spent six weeks in 2005 putting cameras on Sperm Whales in the Sea of Cotez, Baja California, maybe that was the footage.

As for the footage it is actually not bad quality but I know you're gonna hate me because I can't post any here. It's all copyright of Nat Geo so you'll have to wait for that to air in the format they are happy with. I will keep you all updated on other aspects of this project which is planned to also potentially take in another six or so of the most dynamic, read potentially dangerous, shark species found in south African waters. Including the grand dame of them all. Miss White.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[vincelucero]

Ahhhh, she looks so cute and cuddly! Coochicoochicoo... Let me put this little camera on you.

No flash photography I assume? What speed/type of film or is it digital?

 

[Mark Thorpe]

All footage, from my side of the loud button, is filmed 1080 60i from a Sony Z1. In order to fit all the other instrumentation in the housing the film shot by the Crittercam is shot at 620 x 480 and is stored directly, using DivX codec, to an 8GB SDHC card. The quality is fine given that this is predominantly about the science as opposed to HD production. Without the science there is no project, kinda explains the grainy imagery that scientists get so excited about at times.

I will post stills from the Shark borne device once I get something worth looking at.

30% of the battle is getting the damn thing to stay in place: Thanks to said Ballsy south African dude-a-rooster.

30% of the battle is getting the unit back. The system pops of at a pre determined time that is programmed by me to send a small voltage through a magnesium link in the attachment mechanism. Once detached the system floats, as the salinity switches dry off it sends out a tracking signal via a VHF frequency. These salinity switches also trigger the camera as we deploy.

The main 40% of the deal is once the camera is in situ on the host that the host actually does something interesting. Half the time sharks especially just swim, and boy they swim a lot!! Its a big Ocean. Once in a while though they will do something that really makes it all worth while. In 2005 we deployed on Great Whites, 17 deployments in 12 days, and actually got footage of underwater predations on Cape Fur Seals again in south Africa, good stuff.

Fingers crossed these Tigers will do something similar, Hmmmm, Green Sea Turtle anyone? Some rotting Whale Flesh sir?

Cheers,
Mark.