Goliath grouper swallows shark story occurred last week off Florida's Gulf Coast. A boat with fishermen who were able to hook a shark were left stunned as the goliath grouper swallows shark from their grasp, gulping it whole.

The astounding footage where the goliath grouper swallows shark was uploaded to YouTube by user Gimbb14. It was titled "Grouper eats 4ft shark in one bite."

Because of its astounding content, the YouTube video has already amassed a mind-boggling 4.5 million views in just one day, reports The Examiner. As of today, it already has 11M views.

The incident where the goliath grouper swallows shark took place began when one of the men on a fishing boat caught a black tip shark. As can be heard in the video, the man was so delighted by his catch that he even spoke to it saying, "Hey, Buddy. Hi."

But his excitement over his catch would soon be short-lived as the man's voice can suddenly be heard shouting in disbelief when the goliath grouper swallows shark that he caught.

It seemed though that he wasn't too affected in losing his catch that he just laughed afterwards.

Of course, the YouTube video, captioned "Goliath grouper eating a black tip shark in one bite off the coast of Bonita Springs Florida. August 2014", was soon bombarded by comments from other users reacting to the incredible footage.

Gimbb14 also posted the video on in a Reddit post. He illustrated the events which led to the goliath grouper swallows shark by saying the following:

"Ran out to the reef at around 8am yesterday and wasn't having much luck. Put out a chum block, set down some blue runners on the reef and waited. Had a 15lb goliath grouper take and brought him up, as I brought him to the boat, the monster goliath shown in the video came and tried to steal him."

"About 30 minutes later I had about a 5foot nurse shark take and brought him up. As I was dehooking the shark, the goliath came back and inspected but didn't attack him."

"Finally, about an hour after the nurse shark, I hooked the black tip [shark] behind the boat in the chum slick, and then the hilarity in the video began."

According to Yahoo! News, the video has been up-voted to the Front Page of Reddit. Users of the site have also some comments for the video.

Some commented things like, "And that is why the ocean terrifies me," "There's always bigger fish," and, "My God! What's a grouper?!"

Discovery said that goliath groupers truly do come by their name as they can grow up to around 8 feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds.

The largest grouper ever caught was in Florida, and it weighed 680 pounds. That is equivalent to the weight of the Siberian tiger, reports the Huffington Post.

Groupers in general have thick, strong bodies and large mouths, and heavy tooth plates. They can suck and swallow their prey through their powerful mouths and gills, instead of biting their food into pieces.

The Examiner described the species as built to swallow their food whole. Called the Atlantic goliath grouper, or itajara, they usually eat fish, octopi, and crustaceans.

Goliath grouper swallows shark caught on video might seem like a strong species able to fend off any threat, but do not be fooled. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, goliath groupers are now critically endangered. Over the last decade, their population have been slashed to 80 percent.

 

Watch the spectacular video below as the goliath grouper swallows the 4-foot shark.