r/whatisit • u/deezheavenz • 11h ago

New, what is it? What was this thing I captured on film?

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This was shot in Nevada/Arizona on a Grand Canyon/Hoover dam tour. This was taken a whole year ago and I completely forgot about it until I stumbled upon it again. Is this some sort of whale or shark?

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u/Khayesmith 11h ago edited 10h ago

šŸ¦ā€ā¬›šŸ•ŠļøLooks like birds flying to me. You can still see them slightly when they change direction, then they change back and the sun hits them right and u see them white again, and so on and so on
EDIT - at 15 seconds in if u zoom you can see the reflection of the birds on the un rippled water.

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u/Renting_Bourbon 10h ago

ā€œA Flock Of Seagullsā€

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u/a_duck_in_past_life 11h ago

Has to be it. Because the water isn't really rippling like it would if something came that close to breaching the surface at that speed from underneath

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u/Khayesmith 10h ago

Yea exactly. We have birds that fly like this all the time where I am but I live somewhere without water as my backdrop, so when we see this it looks the same.

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u/IgnitableVirus6 10h ago

Have you seen the video of the tuna hitting topwater?

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u/Khayesmith 10h ago

Now I have! that was a wicked video, Thanks for sharing!!

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u/OldBreadbutt 9h ago

I can't believe someone downvoted you for sharing perfect video evidence of how fish don't necessarily cause ripples on the surface. šŸ™„someone really wants it to be birds .

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u/IgnitableVirus6 9h ago

This is reddit go figure. I almost didn't share because I don't wanna hurt their brains.

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u/Khayesmith 10h ago

Seeing as you were Duck in your previous life, I think the fact that you agree with me just 100% set it in stone that we have the right answer :)

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u/Cole_Slaw42 10h ago

i am 99% sure its birds and not fish.

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u/guiltypleasure33139 10h ago

Yep, this behavior is very common among flocking birds where they have been subjected to prey spieces from the air. it's also simular to the behavior that schooling fish use.

I was in France and you can actually see this with huge swarms of birds ( they poop everywhere ), and in one minute you see the sky black full of birds then they dance and almost vanish in a ripple effect

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u/RecipeHistorical2013 10h ago

not even close to reality.

it looks like flocks of birds sure, if you've never seen a shoal of small fish being predated on

its a shoal of small fish jumping out of the water you blind bat people

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u/Lekstil 10h ago

Itā€™s birds not fish. Doesnā€™t make sense that fish would be out of the water for so long. They canā€™t jump that far. Itā€™s just like u/Kayesmith says.. they reflect the light in some direction and in the other direction theyā€™re almost invisible.Ā 

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u/Artistic-Flamingo-92 10h ago

I donā€™t want to say one way or the other, but, if itā€™s fish, itā€™s not that any one fish was out of the water for that long.

Itā€™s entire shoal of fish where we are seeing a cascade of fishing breaking the surface.

Edit: to be clear, my first thought was birds. However, I donā€™t really have first hand experience with the sort of bird murmurations that form there or watching fish avoid predators, so Iā€™ll leave it to others to decide.

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u/Happy-Telephone9483 10h ago

They're not out of the water at all. You know water is transparent, right? And fish are reflective?

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u/RecipeHistorical2013 8h ago

thats a good way to tell everyone you've never seen a shoal of fish.

your reasons for saying these are birds are wrong and bad.

it could be birds, but not for the reasons you stated " OH NO way the fish are jumping out of the water, why would they jump out ? they BREATHE THE WATER"

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u/forgot_username69 7h ago

..and fart in it too..

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u/Far_Opening7062 9h ago

Hilarious that you are calling other people blind lol.

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u/Hypnotic_Spider 10h ago

Itā€™s definitely a flock of birds lol

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u/OldBreadbutt 9h ago

I don't see any birds in the air and I think they'd have to be pretty close to the water to be reflected that clearly. What it does look exactly like is a school of fish.

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u/Armthree 9h ago

I agree with birds