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A New York-based drone pilot captured mesmerizing footage of a shark living its best life, swimming among a massive school of menhaden fish off Little Plains Beach in Southampton on July 16. According to the https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/fish/bait-ball Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and as seen in this video, menhaden form "bait balls" to protect themselves when predators are nearby, gathering tightly together in a formation that exposes the least amount of fish. "It is typically a fish's last-ditch defensive measure because it can draw the attention of other predators like birds and sharks," the Catalina Island Marine Institute https://cimi.org/blog/bait-ball-have-you-ever-heard-of-it/ wrote . Joanna L Steidle, who recorded this footage, https://x.com/HamptonsDrone/status/1945773454692700259 identified the predator as an eight-foot-long spinner shark, saying this was the largest she had spotted yet this season. (Footage by Joanna L Steidle/Storyful via Getty Images UGC)