Wild footage has captured the moment swimmers take on sharks in a series of incredibly close encounters at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
A video shared by the Drone Shark app on TikTok shows a woman unknowingly swimming towards a shark at the popular beach, while a man casually follows her.
“Careful honey, look it’s coming right at you,” warns the drone operator in the video.
“It’s a big unit.”
Fortunately, the woman quickly spots the shark, before appearing to look back.
She can then be seen communicating with the man swimming behind her.
Later, the group appears to follow the shark as it swims in the shallow waters.
At another point in the video, which has racked up more than 14,000 views, a pair of gray nurse sharks can be seen lurking in the water near a group of unsuspecting swimmers.
One of the gray nurses, who can grow up to 3.2 meters, is later seen approaching a swimmer in the group.
“Careful, careful,” the drone operator said, just before the man looked at the shark.
Surprised, the man stops immediately as the shark swims away in front of him.
“That was a shock,” the operator said.
“I love the moment of realization,” one person commented on the video.
“That would definitely get the heart pumping,” said another.
It is not the first time gray nurse sharks, which are generally considered harmless to humans, have been filmed near swimmers at Bondi Beach.
In a video shared by DroneSharkApp earlier this year, a pair of swimmers were seen swimming on the edge of a large salmon school, before a shark suddenly appeared beneath one of them.
He finally saw the shark and froze momentarily, before fleeing in the opposite direction of the predator.
“I don’t know about this… wait for me,” the drone operator said, posing as the woman.
“Wait for me, there are sharks in these… Oh, here it comes!”
Jason Iggleden, who directs the DroneSharkApp Instagram pagesaid in an Instagram post earlier this year that it does not report gray shark sightings to the council or lifeguards.
“Naturally, if I see something more dangerous, like a great white shark or a bull shark, or any other shark that might pose a threat, I will always alert the Bondi lifeguards.”
