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Shark feeding frenzy captured on video

By Howard Dashefsky - bio | email

KAHUKU (KHNL) -- A videographer who prefers to make his living at sea, shared his videotape of an amazing encounter with one of the world's most feared predators.

Alex Werjefelt is no stranger to danger. Last week, he willingly came face to face with it while filming this feeding frenzy about ten miles off of Kahuku. He caught compelling footage of tiger sharks attacking the carcass of a giant sperm whale.

"We found it and we spent the next six hours drifting with it and getting that footage," said Werjefelt. "At first, it was nerve-racking. When we first put the boat in, some sharks came at us a little more aggressively than most of the encounters later on," he continued.

He said two of the sharks seemed to work in tandem, circling their small boat and sizing them up.

"A few pokes and pushes with the paddles and sticks would steer them away from the boat and luckily none of them bit into our boat," described Werjefelt.

A larger support boat was on hand just in case, but Werjefelt said he and everyone else on the smaller boat kept calm for the most part. Werjefelt attributed to their extensive diving experience.

"We've all had a lot of shark encounters so we're pretty experienced when it comes to that. But it was a pretty intense experience and it was pretty interesting."

For those who question the sanity of filming this particular encounter, at such close proximity, he said they all relied on their first hand knowledge of how tiger sharks react.

"Looking at the video is looks crazier than it actually is. It was pretty intense but but I don't think we jeopardized our lives as much as some people might make it out to be," he said.  Werjefelt that witnessing the feeding frenzy undoubtedly ranks his top five ocean encounters.

Now the remains of the carcass is on shore in Kahuku. It had washed up about a mile and a half from the Turtle Bay Resort.