Shark Lurks Near Children Swimming at Florida Beach in Chilling Drone Images Captured by Their Dad
Terrifying images captured by a Florida father’s drone shows a giant shark lurking near his kids and their friends — and the photos were caught by accident.
During a family beach day on June 23, Dan Watson brought his drone along, hoping to get an aerial shot of his three children playing in the water. Little did he know that the imagery he saw would potentially save them from an encounter with a shark.
“See that dark shadow making its way straight for the shore & those people? That was my view this weekend while flying my Mavic 2 Pro… and oh, 3 of those people are my kids!” Watson, 35, said in the caption of an Instagram post of the drone photos.
“Swipe to see the next image that resulted from my yelling to get out of the water and the unmistakable outline of a shark. Definitely too close of an encounter for my liking!” he continued.
Watson, who is a photographer and videographer (he has a YouTube channel where he posts camera reviews), told Today that he usually uses the drone for work purposes only. Luckily, he changed his mind while at New Smyrna Beach that weekend.
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“I yelled ‘Shark!’ and my wife ran down and grabbed them out of the water really quickly,” the Orlando native told Today. “I didn’t know I had captured an image. I showed my wife, and that was moment of, ‘What if we hadn’t flown the drone?’ The shark seemed like it was coming right to shore.”
The almost-encounter happened after the lifeguards went off duty, around 5:30 p.m., according to Today.
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“My daughter was pretty amazed and a little nervous,” Watson told the outlet, saying that his kids, Grace, 9, Jonathan, 6, and Landon, 5, were shaken by the experience. “I think we’re going to work on our sandcastle skills now,” he added.
Thankfully, the incident remained a close call and nothing more, but Watson might be getting some more use out of his drone this summer for shark watch.
Watson added in his Instagram caption: “Thinking my @djiglobal drone is now coming with me to every beach day!!!”
