A close encounter with a baby shark lurking in Australian bay

A juvenile shark has been spotted lurking in shallow water off Perth, Australia.

The Royal Perth Yacht Club posted a video on Facebook from local Robin Morritt of what it claimed is a baby bull shark swimming at ankle depth near a marina. The organisation said in a warning: "Members are urged to take care and be alert in and around the water."

The stalker may not be as dangerous as first thought, though. Many commenters pointed out it resembled a baby sandbar shark, including a shark expert who spoke to Mashable Australia.

"It’s difficult to be absolutely certain from the video despite its quality, but my money is on a juvenile sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus," marine ecologist David Powter said via email.

He explained it's the large dorsal fin and its location in respect to the pectoral fins that suggests it is a sandbar shark, as the features are not consistent with a bull shark.

Click the image below to watch:

Morritt, 61, told Perth Now he was on a morning walk with his dog when he spotted what he believed was a big fish. On closer inspection, he realised it was a baby shark -- and it was heading towards him.

"It was just fearless, it didn’t worry about me, it just came straight at me and I just videoed it, it just came right past my legs," he said.

Powter said the sandbar shark sighting was still uncommon, due to the fact they tend to hang out offshore or on the continental shelf in Western Australia, while overseas they often occur in shallow water nurseries, separate from the adult population.

"On that basis, I would say that it isn’t entirely unexpected, but probably not common," Powter said. "Sandbars are not considered to be dangerous to humans, but should obviously be left alone and observed/video’ed as this one was."

So stay out of the bay, for the good of the shark. 

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