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Chilling drone footage from a scene in Jaws has shown a great white shark swimming inches from a swimmer who did not know the creature was circling around him.
32-year-old Matt Wilkinson didn’t see the shark while paddling his board at Ballina, Australia, and he only realized how close he had come when he watched the video afterwards.
The 1.5-meter-long shark may have been deterred from attacking the surfer by noise from the drone or the touch of the rope from the man’s leg on its snout, authorities said.
Drones have been monitoring the beach for sharks
Wilkinson told Nine Network Television, “I heard, like, the sound of his tail and I looked back and I was like, ‘no, there’s nothing there,’ and I got some weird vibes and I just convinced myself that everything was good, like you always do when you’re surfing. “
Moments later, a recorded warning from the drone indicated that there was a dangerous shark nearby and that everyone should leave the water.
The surfer then saw the images on the beach and said “my heart sank” when he saw their close encounter.
“He actually went to eat something and then my stinky little finger must have made him change his mind,” he said.
Drone operator Beau Monks, from Surf Life Saving NSW, said he felt fear as he watched the shark appear from the depths of the ocean and begin to circle Wilkinson.
“I’m not entirely sure why the shark decided to walk away at the last minute. It could be something as simple as colliding with the rope on its leg or it could have been the drone,” he said.
Matt Wilkinson says his ‘heart sank’ when he saw the images
Monks added that sea creatures sometimes drift away when a drone is approaching.
There have been numerous shark attacks in NSW in recent years and drones have been patrolling Ballina’s beaches every day of the current school holiday period.
