Eyes in the Sky: Using Drones to Gain Insight Into White Shark Behaviour
SHOW NOTES
From his drone’s vantage, Carlos Gauna — AKA The Malibu Artist — has captured previously unrecorded behaviours of one of the ocean’s most captivating predators, the great white shark. His footage has fascinated viewers from across the globe, challenged misconceptions of white sharks, and even altered Carlos’ own perspective of the species [6.45]. He had grown up with a fear of sharks, owing in large part to Jaws: “I had a toy Jaws and I used to play in the bathtub with my brother in the bubbles…and it was always the boat scene,” he recalls. “So, you know, I would say Jaws had an effect on me early and it made, it had a, it was a major contributor to me being scared of sharks early on.”
It wasn’t until many years later, while standing on Point Dume in Malibu, that everything changed [8.50]. “I was looking down and I saw what must’ve been a 16-foot white shark chasing a seal right from the point there,” says Carlos. “And you know, I even made an Instagram post that night saying wow, I just saw the first white shark ever I didn’t have a camera on me!” Carlos believed that this would be his first and only time seeing a great white – but little did he know that he would soon be observing them on a daily basis. This first sighting was the catalyst for using his drone to search for and capture footage of sharks: “Every single year I was filming the gray whales from the parking lot. And then the light bulb went off after I saw that shark, you know, on the drive home that evening. I asked myself, maybe I’m focusing on the wrong species here. What if I started to research and look for sharks along the Southern California coast?”
At first, Carlos’ approach was to simply put up the drone and see what he could find [15.42]. But, after many years of almost daily trips to the coast and conversations with local experts and scientists, Carlos has built a solid knowledge base which guides him to estuaries, particular temperatures, or known prey hotspots. He explains that conditions have to align—clear water and sunlight for filming, with the right biological cues for sharks to appear. Sometimes he’ll follow a single individual for hours, waiting for that fleeting moment when behaviour reveals itself. And these years of observation have shifted Carlos’ own perceptions of the species from one of fear, to one of awe and respect: “I started seeing kind of their true nature. And I really, it started to click in my head that these creatures are much more, are just much smarter, much more intuitive, much more…of a calm creature than I ever expected them to be.”
The advantage of using a drone is that it allows us to see sharks behaving naturally, free from the influence of divers or boats [22.45]. “You’re observing raw nature,” Carlos explains. Sharks rarely notice the drone—“99.9% of the time they have no idea the drone is watching them.” And when they do react, it’s not to the drone itself, but its shadow on the water. Astonishingly, sharks will sometimes chase these shadows, much like a cat follows a laser pointer. One time, Carlos was even able to guide a shark from shallow to deep water simply by moving the shadow.
Across many years of observation using his ‘eye in the sky’, Carlos has been able to capture some unusual behaviours and events, some of which have never before been recorded. Among the strangest behaviours Carlos has filmed is what looks like sharks eating kelp [30.10]. At first, he thought he had captured white sharks grazing, but when slowed down, the footage showed something else: kelp strands passing into their mouths and shooting out through their gills. “It raised so many questions—are they cleaning their gills? Is it play? Is there something nutritional?” Such subtle behaviours would be hard to see by divers in the water; only drones allow us to see them clearly.
Another discovery came when he documented white sharks moving their dorsal fins laterally to bat objects—seaweed, and even plastic—into the air [32.10]. This fin-flicking behaviour is more often associated with dolphins, not sharks, and had scientists stumped. “So, you know, we submitted this as an observation, and let scientists debate what’s happening. But the fish behavioral experts that reviewed our paper, biomechanics experts that reviewed our paper… they say, we can’t explain this. We haven’t seen a shark do this.” This behaviour may hint at intelligence and playfulness we don’t yet fully understand. “It gives us a little glimpse of too, you know, they’re likely much more intelligent than we think they are, you know, and maybe the dorsal fin serves a different purpose or there’s additional purposes to the dorsal fin rather than just stability,” explains Carlos.
Perhaps Carlos’ most exciting discovery came in 2023, when he filmed what could be the first newborn white shark to be documented in the wild [39.20]. At first, Carlos thought it was an albino white shark: a small individual, with what looked like very pale skin. But closer inspection revealed its body was in fact covered in a milky, shedding layer, and its face was “scrunched-up” with rounded dorsal fins and bent pectoral fins – as though it had just been born. Furthermore, this was an area where Carlos had seen very large females, which he suspected to be pregnant. “And it just happened to be on this day, one of them just starts to shake really weird and then it just dives. And I couldn’t see, right? And then about 15 minutes later, this little beautiful scrunched up white face shark comes up.” Although he can’t say for certain, Carlos believes this evidence all points to the fact that this small individual was in fact a brand new, just born, baby white shark.
And, having seen many other large, possibly pregnant females in the same area for consecutive years, the implications are that this is a nursery site for the species [50.00] – and thus a site that deserves protection. “I’ve always said that any place that an animal gives birth should be considered sacred – land or water,” says Carlos. And if indeed this is a place where white sharks are giving birth, it should be somewhere we put in protections.” Yet he has also documented threats to sharks—illegal fishing, boat strikes, even sharks killed and sunk with cinder blocks. “I call them murders…it’s just heartbreaking.” Because of their slow growth and late maturity, losing young sharks today means fewer adults in the future.
But the relationship between white sharks and humans gets attention for other reasons – in particular, the fear of shark bite incidents [56.10]. But while these incidents do happen, Carlos’ footage is helping to change the narrative, demonstrating that negative interactions are rare. His drone also regularly captures sharks swimming near surfers, swimmers and spearfishers. Almost always, they are indifferent. “Most of the time, it looks like the sharks don’t want anything to do with us, and I don’t blame them. We’re pretty loud, and we have these surfboards that are funky looking and stuff to a shark. They’re like, yeah, I really do think that white sharks know what we are. We’re humans, and they try to avoid us,” he emphasises. But, water users should also be mindful. White sharks are also predators, and sharing the water with them does require situational awareness. “For example, spear fishermen have a high probability of encountering a shark. Why? Because typically they have a fish in distress at the end of their spear and sharks are just doing what they do. They sense a fish in distress and will go after the actual fish. This is why spear fishermen encounter sharks often. They’re not going after the spear fishermen. They’re going after their fish,” Carlos explains. So, it makes sense to be mindful of that – removing your catch from the water a quickly as possible, not having it hanging off your belt or dangling off the back of the boat where people are swimming.
Carlos hopes that his footage and work with scientists will continue to help promote human-shark coexistence and encourage more positive and factually accurate narratives regarding the species. When asked how his own connection with sharks has evolved, Carlos is thoughtful. “Where people see sharp teeth, I see apprehension. They’re beautiful animals, highly misunderstood. I didn’t understand them until I got to observe them for hours upon hours and see them for what they truly are.”
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Carlos Gauna (The Malibu Artist)
Carlos is a professional photographer and FAA certified drone pilot based in Southern California. He specializes in capturing aerial and landscape imagery as well as creating unique digital media content. Whether flying a drone, diving beneath the surface, or filming from the shoreline, his mission is simple: to capture the raw, untold stories of the ocean — especially sharks — and share them with the world.
Carlos has used photography and drones to bring awareness to wildlife preservation. Additionally, he collaborates with scientists across the world and is involved in various studies. As a public speaker, conservationist, and educator, Carlos enjoys sharing ideas and helping educate the next generation of conservationists and filmmakers. His goal is to use photography and drones to bring awareness to wildlife and the nature around us.
Carlos’ work has been featured on National Geographic’s Shark Fest, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, NBC, CBS Evening News, LA Times, The Boston Globe, PBS, France 2, & a variety of other media outlets.
