Cruise passenger drops GoPro overboard, discovers creatures lurking below

The versatile, lightweight design of GoPro cameras has made them a staple in the travel kits of many keen photographers. With an impressive level of durability and easy-to-use interfaces, they’ve upped the possibilities of how travel and adventure experiences can be captured on film.

Often, GoPros are associated with adventure activities, like mountain biking, parkour or diving. The wide, fish-eye lens creates an immersive quality and brings viewers closer to the action. They’re usually strapped to an adrenaline junkie’s chest or helmet, while they barrel down hills, skydive from a plane or swim through the ocean depths.

In the years since the release of the camera, a new genre of travel content has made its way onto the internet. Videos titled with ‘I dropped my GoPro’ uploaded through the early 2010s tended to capture accidental fumblings of swimmers, snorkelers and divers, with cameras plummeting to the sea floor and filming fish, rubbish and seaweed floating by before their eventual retrieval.

However, a refreshed version of the genre now seems to be emerging on YouTube. Curious camera operators have started to attach fishing lines to their GoPros, before intentionally dropping them into the ocean. There are videos where people have cast GoPros off the sides of ships, dunked them near wharves and dropped them down mysterious wells or holes.

This video from a YouTuber with the username Odysseas Froilan sees a GoPro thrown off the side of a cruise ship. Floating through the ocean, it captures schools of fish, the ship’s anchor, the underside of the boat and, when thrown off again in the middle of the night, a shark swimming in and out of the shadows. It’s an eerie and uncanny look at what lies below the boat.

Commenters were taken by the clip, writing:

“The amount of activity in this short vid is amazing. Daytime you get the “friendly” fish and nighttime brings out the eat you fish.”

“I love how the fish immediately come to investigate what just dropped in the water.”

“This GoPro on a string is better at filming than every single person who has ever filmed a UFO/ghost sighting.”

Other YouTubers have taken the format and run with it. Within the last few months, fishing and travelling influencer AnglerUp with Brant has started to cast off a GoPro alongside his lure, capturing footage of fish, turtles, crocodiles, crabs and more ocean critters, with voiceovers describing the lively underwater scenes.

These GoPro videos showcase the capabilities of the handy travel technology and offer an interesting exploration of human curiosity. They’re an exciting opportunity for travellers looking to capture new angles of their worldly experiences - from adrenaline-seeking thrills to mysterious ocean depths.