Last week, a video of people hydrofoiling off Capistrano Beach in Dana Point, California, made the internet rounds.
Even when the hydrofoilers zoom directly over the animals, the sharks don鈥檛 seem to care.聽Since drones became a ubiquitous sight聽off beaches and piers, amatuer filmmakers have been capturing videos like these and sending them to the media, who, in the words of Chris Lowe, professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University at聽Long Beach, 鈥.鈥 People tend to get a bit freaked out when they realize how close we can unwittingly come to some of nature鈥檚 most refined predators.聽聽
The聽Shark Lab has started to use drone footage to study why sharks, often baby or pregnant ones, tend to hang out in shallow waters as well as how they behave when they encounter humans.聽
鈥淲e have a lot of footage and anecdotal evidence of sharks swimming around where humans play, and as long as people aren鈥檛 harassing them, the sharks just don鈥檛 care,鈥 says Lowe.聽
And often 鈥渢he surfers don鈥檛 even notice,鈥 he says. For example, pro surfer Kelly Slater聽didn鈥檛 seem to be aware of a shark that聽 his GoPro footage in 2014.聽
Lowe hopes to have data on sharks鈥 attitudes toward close-proximity humans in a couple of years. For now, 鈥渨hen there are a lot of people and sharks in shallow water together, most of the time聽nothing happens,鈥 he says. However, swimming in groups and avoiding the water at dawn and dusk can reduce your risk of encountering sharks, friendly or not.聽
In withdrawal after the end of ? Here鈥檚 even more drone footage: