FISHNADO!
FILMING THE
Venturing inside a giant tornado of fish
NEW SCIENCE
The Our Oceans team have been working closely with Jorge Fontes and world leading scientists at the University of the Azores, as he strives to learn more about the whale sharks’ movements around the Azores and their amazing ability to work with the tuna to corral the snipefish into a simple meal.
Our Oceans took underwater cameraman Nuno Sá to the end of the globe and back, but the story that was closest to his heart, and the most impactful of his career, was one that he filmed in his own backyard, the Azores. The story came about a decade ago, when Nuno started hearing anecdotes from local fishermen about a large creature with white spots that would show up in the middle of the ocean, that they called 'pintados'. They didn't know what the pintados were, but they quickly learned that they were a sign of abundance. The mysterious underwater giants would steer the fishermen to schools of fish, and they would then be able to catch a lot of tuna. The 'pintados' were, in fact, whale sharks, the biggest fish in the ocean, who were teaming up with tuna to corral smaller fish to feast on, in a giant whirlpool of fish. One of the most epic moments that Nuno encountered during this shoot was with a very big bait ball that had bluefin tuna in the middle of it and also a whale shark.
Upon dropping into the water, the dive team had maybe thirty minutes swimming full power to try to keep up with the action. There were a few hundred tunas that turned into a few thousand and suddenly, Nuno found himself in the middle of a 'fishnado'. We're talking about three-hundred kilo tunas, just darting past him. “We usually think of whale sharks as these slow moving, gentle giants and kind of passive and very curious towards humans. And this story was the exact opposite. I mean, bait ball situations are very volatile. There's action happening everywhere. There's fish flying in every single direction. Sometimes you're getting bumped around by tunas the size of a small car”. - Nuno Sá, Our Oceans cinematographer For Nuno, this is a story that has been ten years in the making. Filming it for Our Oceans was a once in a lifetime experience for him.
IMPACT FILM
INSIDE THE FISHNADO
5 MIN 46 SEC
Underwater cameraman, Nuno Sá, has been documenting the battle between whales sharks and fishermen in the Azores for 15 years. Through his unique insight we see how this time the tables have turned… The fishermen were here first and it’s the gentle giants that are stealing the catch.