Drone footage recorded off the coast of Santa Cruz showed one California surfer narrowly avoiding a shark after the drone's operator attempted to warn him from above.
The video was recorded near the Seascape Beach in Aptos, a community in Santa Cruz County, on the morning of June 10. Since then, the encounter has quickly spread online.
Nick Bertocchini, who regularly flies drones, captured the video showing a surfer, whom he later identified as "Rex," apparently unaware that a shark was circling him in the water.
At one point, the shark moves directly behind his board, alarming Bertocchini. According to Bertocchini, who shared the footage on Instagram, he throttled up the drone in an effort to warn the surfer. Rex eventually spots the intimidating-looking shark before swimming to shore.
In the Instagram video where Bertocchini shared the footage, he wrote, "I've spent a lot of time flying my drone watching sharks around surfers and this was one of the only times I was actually nervous. I tried to warn the surfer, Rex, who I talked to afterwards."
Bertocchini added, "Usually the sharks are slightly curious and move on quickly but this one seemed a little more investigative than usual. Glad no bites were exchanged! So much fun watching these amazing sharks."
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Once back on shore, Rex told him he had grown up surfing there and had been noticing more sharks near Seascape Beach over the years.
And although shark sightings are fairly common along California's coast, bites are extremely rare, per the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. When bites do occur, they're usually a case of mistaken identity, where the sharks believe humans or surfboards are different animals, before abandoning them.
Yet, the animals have retained quite a negative reputation for being dangerous to humans. In most years, under a dozen people across the globe are killed by sharks every year, while humans kill roughly 100 million of them.
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