Terrifying moment dad spots a SHARK swimming towards his family while taking beach photos with his drone in Florida
- Dan Watson was using his drone to take pictures of his wife and three young children at New Smyrna Beach
- As he photographed them splashing around by the shore, he spotted a dark shadow just a few yards away
- The alarmed father yelled at his family to get out of the water and they all legged it towards the shore
- An incredible photo shows the ominous moment the shark’s outline was swimming towards the group
- On a second picture the shark can be seen heading back into the deep while the family rushes to safety
- ‘Definitely too close of an encounter for my liking!’ Watson wrote on Instagram where he shared the photos
- New Smyrna is in Florida, which recorded 16 unprovoked shark attacks last year – the most of any U.S. state
- An 18-year-old surfer was bitten in the foot by a shark at the same beach Sunday after another attack in April
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A dad using his drone to take beach photos of his family spotted an ominous shadow in the water just yards away from where his kids were splashing around.
Dan Watson was at Florida’s New Smyrna Beach with his wife and three young children on a June weekend when he saw the shark on his drone’s display.
‘Kids were playing in the beach and I just decided, “Hey, now’s a good time to get a picture of them overhead”‘, he told FOX35 Orlando.
Dan Watson captured this incredible photo with his drone on a June weekend at Florida’s New Smyrna Beach. The dark shadow of a shark can be seen approaching his family near the shore
This image ‘resulted from my yelling to get out of the water and the unmistakable outline of a shark,’ Watson wrote in the caption of his Instagram post
‘As soon as I got it into the air, I started seeing a shadow moving through the water right towards them.’
Watson shouted at his family to get out of the water.
The professional photographer posted the two incredible photos he captured on his Instagram page, the first showing the shark’s sinister shadow approaching the family near the shore.
The second image ‘resulted from my yelling to get out of the water and the unmistakable outline of a shark,’ Watson wrote in the caption.
It shows his wife and kids legging it out of the ocean, while the creature has turned to swim towards the deep.
‘Definitely too close of an encounter for my liking!’ Watson wrote.
Watson (left) is a professional photographer and has a wife and three young kids. This is an Instagram photo of the family from Christmas 2018
Watson showed the pictures to his wife Sarah as soon as she was out of the water. She said knowing the shark, circled, was so close to her kids was ‘terrifying’
‘Thinking my [drone] is now coming with me to every beach day!!!,’ Watson, who is also a videographer with a Youtube channel, posted.
He showed his wife, Sally, the photo of the shark as soon as she got out of the water.
‘When you think of a shark, you think of them in deep water, you don’t think of them extremely close, and you don’t think they’ll come in knee deep water… it is terrifying to see them come that close to my kids,’ she told News 13.
One of their little sons told FOX35 Orlando: ‘The shark was scary!’
Florida recorded 16 unprovoked shark attacks in 2018, the most of any U.S. state, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
Since 1882, Florida has had 827 unprovoked shark attacks.
New Smyrna Beach is in Volusia County on the central east coast of the state, which has recorded the most shark attacks by far with 303.
Just on Sunday, an 18-year-old surfing off New Smyrna Beach was bitten in the foot by a shark, according to CBS Miami.
In April, a 19-year-old was bitten by a shark in the same area.