We’ve all read countless versions of “shark stalks surfer” headlines since footage from a California drone operator went viral. The video in question came from Nick Bertocchini, who has observed plenty of sharks near surfers while flying his drone over the Pacific Ocean, but the encounter in Aptos earlier this month was one time he had to admit to getting nervous.
The footage went viral because it showed the animal circling a surfer by the name of Max Eder, who calmly left the lineup once he noticed what was happening. The mainstream media hype seems to have taken the circling behavior and run with the notion that the moment was entirely predatory, which it was not. Circling is not stalking, it’s investigative, and apex predators who stalk their prey don’t exactly give warning when their intent is to harm. While the footage and the encounter are still newsworthy, the misconception definitely fueled part of the virality and created more than one misinformed headline. In an interview with local Lookout Santa Cruz, Eder provided more nuance to the story than those generic “stalking” headlines.
“The drone footage was 10 times more frightening than the actual encounter,” Eder told Lookout Santa Cruz.
The 55-year-old surfer admitted to being shocked and scared in the moment, understandably, but had the presence of mind to calmly remove himself from the lineup.
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“It’s a fight-or-flight situation at that point, and you kind of have basically three options available to you: one is to panic, two is to calmly try to remove yourself from the area, and then the best one is some of the comments I have read were like, face off with it and stand your ground,” he said. “And you know, I chose Option 2,” adding that thrashing around wasn’t the right thing to do. Experts on shark behavior would back that notion up, as thrashing can actually trigger an instinct to chase.
Eder also shared that Bertocchini’s efforts to warn him didn’t go unnoticed. A friend in the lineup apparently pointed out the nearby drone, and that alerted Eder just before noticing the fin. When he got back to shore and watched the footage, he says the entire encounter felt more dramatic than what he had just experienced.
“It was fantastically beautiful but completely frightening at the same time,” he says. “When you’re in the water, you can’t see what’s happening underneath you. The video lets you see every move it made.”
He points out that the shark got much closer than he’d realized, and points out a moment when it was circling and potentially approaching from behind being “too close for comfort.”
“But I also think that if a shark truly wanted to attack, you would never even see it coming.”
