A second video containing what appears to be the same shark footage as in a Manly video that went viral has emerged on YouTube.
Terry Tufferson’s GoPro video GoPro: Man fights off great white shark in Sydney Harbour has received more than 2m hits since it was uploaded yesterday.
It was billed as a “bit of a close call with a great white shark in Sydney Harbour.”
On the same day a video called “Almost” great White Shark Attack – Newport Beach, Australia was also uploaded.
If it turns out to be a fake, then this person has done an outstanding job.
- Richard Farr, owner of Digital Video Experts
The video footage of a man’s legs kicking away from a white shark is the same in both videos.
It is unclear which video was uploaded first.
Tufferson’s video shows a man, leaping off Jump Rock at Collins Beach, a notorious jumping spot in Manly, with a GoPro camera strapped to his head.
As he comes to the surface he hears his friends shouting ‘shark’, before coming face-to-face with a great white.
The creator of the Newport video, Scott Mitchell, commented on the video saying “this video is to take the piss, and reel in ‘believers’.”
Yesterday, opinion on social media was divided on whether the Manly video was fake or real.
One online commentator suggested the Manly video was a fake at around the 0:59 second mark: “The diver dips his head into the water to see the shark approaching. It is at that point the video is spliced because in just a few tenths of a second, the shark seems to teleport from the middle of the video to the lower left corner.”
Yesterday, expert Richard Farr, owner of Digital Video Experts, in Sydney, agreed that this part of the video was the most dubious, after analyzing it for the Manly Daily.
“At 0:59 seconds and 22 frames, the shark can be seen on one side of the frame and then at 0:59 seconds and 23 frames the shark seems to jump half a metre to the right,” he said.
“Unless I see the original footage I can’t say for sure, but I think it is real.
“If it turns out to be a fake, then this person has done an outstanding job.”
He added if the footage turned out to be fake the editing was so clever he would offer this person a job.
So, it looks like Mr Tufferson – which is the name used on YouTube – could have a new career ahead of him.
This story originally appeared on News.com.au.