Nothing goes to waste in nature.
Our world's oceans are filled with natural beauty. However, they are also living, breathing ecosystems where brutal struggles of life and death play out every single day. The food chain can be a brutal thing, especially if you are unfortunate enough to be the prey.
Even when something dies of unnatural causes, it rarely goes to waste because nature has perfect systems in place to recycle and reuse every single part of a dead animal. In the case of today's video, it is a large whale killed after being struck by a ship.
Even though that was an unnatural death, this whale will not go to waste. The smell of rotting flesh and the oil from the whale's blubber is like ringing a gigantic dinner bell. One that plenty of sharks have heard and are now coming in to investigate.
Popular culture likes to portray sharks as apex predators that ruthlessly hunt down their prey with a blind and savage bloodlust. While sharks are capable of hunting and killing their own prey, they are also opportunistic. If they can conserve energy by feasting upon something that is already dead and not trying to get away, they are likely to take it. As you saw with the great white coming into this carcass to eat its fill.
Even though the great white was likely not interested in fighting the blue sharks for a meal, it appears they were taking no chances. That was a massive great white. In this case, there was plenty of whale to go around for all these predators. That probably also is what made it possible for a diver to get in the water with all these sharks around and still feel safe. The shark is always going to go for the dead thing that won't try to get away or fight back.
The lesson here is that nothing goes to waste in our world's oceans. One animal's death is another's salvation.
Products featured on Wide Open Spaces are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
NEXT: THE AXIS DEER AND HOW THEY'RE IMPACTING PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES
WATCH
