This Underwater Crab Camera Is The Only Therapy I Need

It’s been a truly wild week in Australian politics, and if I’m honest, we all deserve a bit of a timeline cleanse after days of watching it all unfold. And what better way to relax and unwind than with a glorious underwater film?

Adelaide-based kayak fisher Andy Burnell has been fishing off the shores of the city’s beloved Henley Beach, and has been broadcasting what happens on the ocean floor while doing so.

With a camera attached to his bait — which sits on the ocean floor about 500m of the shore — Burnell has managed to capture some pretty impressive sights, which he broadcasts on his Facebook page Crab.e.cam.

“I’ve been surprised by all the different things I’ve picked up along the way; the other fish, and the squid and the octopus,” he told the ABC. “What amazed me was the grid pattern the squid displays as it first comes in.

“It’s got perfect squares all over it and then it turns a dark colour and starts going for the bait — it’s right in front of the camera as the crab’s trying to pincer it.”

Perhaps most impressive is the footage of crab fight club, he managed to capture earlier this week. In the footage, shared to Facebook, massive blue swimmer crabs are seen fighting it out for a piece of the bait.

If you’re wondering why he films the stuff, he has a background in marine biology, and was curious as to what was happening beneath him while he was fishing.

Crab brawling aside, the footage is a pretty cool look at what’s going on not far off shore, with a Port Jackson shark and an abundance of fish also making cameos throughout the clip.

The video has amassed more than 17,000 views since being published on Tuesday, well and truly proving that we all need a damn timeline cleanse right now.

The footage is particularly interesting considering Henley Beach is a popular swimming spot for Adelaide locals, located close enough to the CBD that you could go for an afternoon dip on your way home from work.

But interestingly, many people aren’t aware at just how much is living out there.

“I find a lot of people are just stoked to see stuff they wouldn’t normally see along here,” Burnell told the ABC.

Whether or not the sight of sharks off the coast makes you keen to go for a dip is up for debate. “It’s important because people think, ‘It’s a metro beach, it’s sand, there’s not much there’, when in fact there’s a lot there and it’s very close,” added Burnell. “If that makes people think about the marine environment, then I’m happy about it.”

In addition to the crab fighting video, his page has tonnes of clips of various undersea creatures including squid, octopuses and — perhaps most excitingly for anyone else desperately counting down the days until Shark Week — more Port Jackson sharks.