An alarming video shows a battle-scarred 10-foot great white shark appear to contemplate nibbling on a couple of children swimming off the SoCal coast.
The drone footage, captured by shark-watcher Carlos Gauna, or The Malibu Artist, shows the shark swimming directly towards a child.
The dangerous predator approaches within feet of the child before swimming past them and making a second pass towards the child. It then swims away without harming anyone in the area.
It appeared the children and people in the area were unaware of the looming shark, but waved at the drone. Gauna said the moment terrified him.
“This shark has a tendency to get close to people, but on this day, it really made me nervous,” he told Good Morning America. “My heart was pounding.”
Gauna explained in an Instagram post that he had observed this shark, which had an injury to its back and dorsal fin from a prop boat, approaching people more often than other sharks he had seen.
“I don’t often get nervous, but this was one of those rare instances where I did. The young swimmers had no idea. I’m standing over a mile away,” he said.
“My observations showed the shark to be rather active,” he added. I watched it breach twice in one day (I assume that wound is itchy). And because of the injury I don’t know if it’s searching for easier prey or if it’s more alert. Either way, this shark does approach humans at a higher frequency. At least by my observations.”
Facebook commenters expressed their fear about how alarmingly close the shark came.
“Note to self, if you are swimming and see a drone flying above you, get out of the water immediately,” one person wrote.
“Can we all just come to knowledge that if you are in an ocean and see a drone get the hell out,” another commenter added.
The same SoCal shark videographer had his camera munched on by a shark in late April. A great white shark suddenly lunged at one of his cameras and chomped down on it during an excursion off the coast.
“I’ve been around them a lot,” Gauna told the outlet. “They don’t normally come at you like that.”
Gauna captured the shocking moment from multiple angles.
“It depends on the day, but I typically like to have three cameras going, an aerial drone, and a couple cameras on the kayak and maybe even one on my person sometimes,” he explained.
