British photographer and swimmer Ole Clark, an underwater photographer in Australia, captured a stunning picture of a group of thousands of fish surrounding a giant shark, as if they were forming a shield to protect the shark.

Clark documented the image in the state of Western Australia, and called the image “The swarm”, and the whale shark appeared to be surrounded by a silver shield of fish, according to the website. CNN Arabic.

The photographer won the title of best British underwater photographer

Clark won the title of Best British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2023 in the Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) competition, thanks to this scene, in addition to achieving second place in the overall ranking of the competition.

For his part, Clark said: “It is very normal to see whale sharks accompanied by small fish, and small fish use the whale shark as a source of protection, and sometimes a way to move,” adding: “This time, it was the ‘bait ball’ formed by the fish around the shark.” Much larger than usual.”

The fish surrounded the shark

Many fish surrounded the whale shark, and the photographer concluded that he “could barely see through”. Although the fish circled the whale shark to avoid predators, it needed to avoid the shark as well in the end.

“Whale sharks are often classified as plankton feeders, but they can swallow anything up to about 10 centimeters in size,” Clark said.

At first, the shark seemed annoyed by the crowding around it, as it was diving and then rising to the surface of the water quickly, as if it was trying to keep the fish away from it, and Clark documented this image while working on a tourist boat in 2022, and a plane belonging to the boat was able to find a fish. shark, and tracked it until he was able to photograph it.

First Clark