Stunning drone footage captured off Perth’s coast shows a pair of divers swimming with a school of hammerhead sharks.
The amazing video was filmed on Saturday by photographer Kane Watson.
The drone footage shows a small school of hammerheads circling while the divers approach with underwater cameras.
Watson, a talented cameraman, regularly captures footage of WA’s wildlife and posts it to his Instagram page.
One of the divers spotted in the footage, asked not to be named, due to fears fishermen will discover the sharks’ location and target them.
They are an advocate for a ban on land-based shark fishing.
“They do not congregate in the numbers they used to in the past sadly,” the diver said.
“These hammerheads are a protected species everywhere else in the world but for some strange reason not here in Australia.”
A pair of shark experts at the University of WA recently called for the protection of this species of hammerhead.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Naima Andrea López and Wen Family Chair in Conservation Professor Jessica Meeuwig published an article in October about how drone footage is shedding new light on shark behaviour.
The article revealed that the critically endangered scalloped hammerheads are highly social, can gather in groups numbering more than 100, and have become regular visitors to the waters off Perth in summer.
“These iconic sharks are among the world’s most threatened species due to over-fishing,” the article read.
“And incredibly they are still legally fished in Australia, despite their populations falling by 80 per cent in just 55 years.”
The researchers learnt that the sharks gathering off the coast are juveniles and present during the full moon.
“In terms of what were they doing, our study suggests they’re seeking a place to rest and recover. Sharks often hunt more on the nights with a full moon, taking advantage of better light to see prey,” the article continued.
“That would mean these juveniles are tired after a night’s hunting. Now they need to rest and digest. Gathering in a group could also provide some degree of protection from other predators in the area.
“It’s likely, therefore, that these shallow waters are an important shelter for scalloped hammerheads.”
The researchers are calling for a ban on fishing at their gathering site and a code of conduct for water users.