After Bondi was blasted for its laissez-faire response to The Global Pandemic, Australia’s most iconic beach was shut down for most of April. It has now re-opened. However, as incredible new imagery from a local photographer shows, Bondi’s unshuttering comes with a twist.
How? The wildlife, now comfortable in the pastel aquarium that is Bondi without bubble butts, is making more incursions than ever seen before. This particularly applies to Grey Nurse sharks, which Drone Shark App, an Instagram account so cool it entices tourists rather than deterring them, has captured on film.
Taking to Instagram on Friday the 1st of May, Drone Shark App posted an IGTV video of five large Grey Nurse sharks, swimming with (and coincidentally, forming a love heart shape out of) a massive school of bait fish. They are then joined by surfers and swimmers.
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Drone Shark App also pointed out that his intention is not to create fear (particularly in this case, with Grey Nurse’s being among the friendliest, least-threatening sharks to humans), but rather to educate and normalise.
“All I can say is wowsers guys, what a morning: five Normans. The shark naming novelty has been exposed. But let’s keep it going for all our kids so we have to name these guys, remember I want our kids growing up to not fear sharks, not fear the world, love themselves and everything around them,” he captioned the video.
“That’s my mission in life.”
When you hit play, you also hear Drone Shark App’s playful commentary: “Maybe when the swimmers start swimming I might let the lifeguards know there’s a huge bait ball out there with three huge grey nurses in ’em.”
“These surfers are in there now.”
This is not the first time Drone Shark App has spotted some interesting activity in recent weeks. He posted a huge vortex school of salmon yesterday…
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… And a tribute post to long time local ‘Norman’ the day before that (Norman is another Grey Nurse).
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That’s before we mention the following ‘sealy’ good post…
Drone Shark App is an Instagram account which began as a way for surfers on Australia’s Eastern beaches (Bondi, Bronte, Tamarama, etc.) to monitor conditions and look for sharks. As you can now see, it has developed into an envy-inducing Instagram account in its own right, followed by everyone from tourists to personal trainers to banker wankers investment specialists to tradies.
The common link? FOMO.
Lacking the pretension found on some other location-based Instagram accounts, @dronesharkapp captures the Eastern beaches in an authentic way.
From surfing with stingrays…
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… to hangin’ with hammerheads…
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… to pure wave riding…
… Drone Shark App is more than about sharks.