Shark attack on camera reveals what it looks like to get eaten

Artist who captured footage says his goal is to ‘make people fall in love with sharks’

An underwater camera has captured what it is like to be eaten by a shark after the ocean predator chomped on a cinematographer’s equipment.

The filmmaker and conservationist known as Zimy Da Kid was shooting an undersea documentary in the Maldives in April when a tiger shark circling around him took a bite of his 360-degree camera.

The equipment survived the attack after the shark released the camera from its jaw, providing a fascinating glimpse into the shark’s mouth and throat.

The inside of the mouth captured by cinematographer’s Insta360 camera (Zimy da Kid)

The footage shows the shark’s mouth as it bites down, its razor-sharp teeth, the gills on the inner walls and the closed throat.

Speaking about the encounter, the 29-year-old cinematographer said: “I put my Insta360 on a weight and then I put it on the sand and the shark was curious.

“He saw this shiny thing and he thought ‘let me taste it’ and then he bit the camera.”

The camera captured the shark’s smooth inner gills and throat (Zimy da Kid)

The shot was taken in the waters of Fuvahmulah, south of the Maldives, where there is a large population of tiger sharks.

The artist said he wanted to change the negative perception around sharks that can be portrayed in popular culture.

“When sharks bite people it is not because they want to eat us, it’s because they see someone and they are curious so they just bite,” he said. “But they usually never eat the person because they don’t like it.”

Artist and cinematographer, Zimy da Kid, said he started filming sharks to make people fall in love with them (Instagram @valdurlec)

The cinematographer said he hoped his marine documentaries would help to encourage people to protect the planet and its natural habitats.

“My goal is to make people fall in love with sharks through beautiful images,” he said. “I started filming sharks because sharks are disappearing at a very, very fast rate which is going to be very bad for the ocean.

“If sharks disappear then the whole ecosystem of the ocean is going to fall apart. If the ocean falls apart, then we will fall apart with it.”

He wrote in a Facebook post: “As an artist, creator and ocean lover, I truly believe that, through filmmaking and cinematography, we have a major role to play when it comes to conservation and fighting for the natural world.

“Art has this unique power of being able to create emotions within people and once people start loving something, they start caring about it and protecting it. This is exactly what I want to do through my art.”

To see more content from Zimy da Kid, you can visit www.zimydakid.com and find him on Instagram: @zimydakid.