With documented swimming speeds of up to 46 miles per hour, mako sharks represent the world’s fastest elasmobranch species. If the octopus was not engaged in a struggle but merely affixed to the shark, it would have been subjected to an exceptionally rapid transport mechanism within the marine environment.

A shortfin mako shark, the fastest-swimming shark in the world, was caught on camera with an octopus catching a ride on its back off the coast of New Zealand.