Drone Footage Shows Great White Sharks Swimming Right Under Surfers in California
A recent study conducted along the Southern California coastline found that sharks swim much closer to humans than previously imagined. So close, in fact, that drone footage recently caught several great white sharks swimming seemingly within feet of surfers.
The footage was shot by wildlife photographer Kevin Christopherson at San Onofre State Beach, a popular San Diego surf destination. As you can see in the below video, at least three enormous great whites can be seen swimming in the same vicinity of about a dozen surfers. In some instances, the surfboard-sized sharks pass right underneath the surfers.
San Onofre State Beach is well known for its population of great white sharks, so the surfers were likely aware of the risk. Not to mention, it's exceedingly rare for sharks to attack humans.
In the study, which was conducted by Shark Lab, a biology unit of the California State University, Long Beach, researchers spent two years using drones to monitor shark activity at two great white hotspots, southern Santa Barbara County and central San Diego County.
Throughout the entire span of the study period, from January 2019 through March 2021, not a single shark bite was reported in any of the 26 beaches surveyed.
Taking that into consideration, the surfers in the video were probably never in serious danger of being attacked by any of the sharks. But still, be that as it may, most of us would probably prefer to give apex predators a wider berth. Next time your surfing, you might want to look down.
