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Molly Dixon, a Cairns local, filmed hundreds of tiny fish beaching themselves on coral sand at Fitzroy Island, while she was visiting with her sister.
Dixon is heard exclaiming "oh my god they're getting eaten" in video uploaded to TikTok at the end of April.
The comments come as what looks like a reef shark ploughs through the shallows after the frantic fish.
Today, wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta said the behaviour was not uncommon.
"Whatever was chasing it did a good job to drive the fish close to shore. This is common escape behaviour from the fish," she told 9news.com.au.
"Safety in numbers and by balling up and rotating often is what we typically see in these intense bait balls.
"It is just that they were driven against the shore and had nowhere to go hence the frantic moving around and back to water."
Marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez agrees.
"Generally, smaller fish like these are seen jumping out of the water when they are being hunted by a larger fish," Márquez said.
"Smaller fish tend to stay closer to the shoreline and shallower waters to avoid larger predators in the deeper waters. However, larger fish can venture into shallows to hunt smaller fish - which can cause them to scatter, swim away, or jump like this in hopes of getting away.
"Smaller fish tend to stay closer to the shoreline and shallower waters to avoid larger predators in the deeper waters. However, larger fish can venture into shallows to hunt smaller fish - which can cause them to scatter, swim away, or jump like this in hopes of getting away.
"I've seen this sort of behaviour both near the coast, like in this video, but also in fish that jump out in the open ocean to avoid predators there."
Sharks spotted metres from the shore at beach in Queensland
Dixon said the encounter put her and her sister off swimming that day.
"My sister and I were about to go for a dip before we noticed all the fish swimming towards us," she told 9news.com.au.
"We soon realised they were being chased by a shark.
"We soon realised they were being chased by a shark.
"We definitely didn't swim after that."