Dad using drone spots shark in water heading for kids

A professional Florida photographer was taking aerial pictures of his family playing in the water at New Smyrna Beach when he saw a large shadow in the water moving toward his children.

>> Read more trending news

It didn’t take long for Dan Watson to realize the shadow looked just like a shark and it was heading right for his wife and three children.

"I actually only had the drone up for about 30 seconds, and then all of a sudden, I started noticing that shadow moving through the water," Watson told a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter.

“I was able to take one image, and then I started running off to the beach and yelling at them to get out and yelling, ‘Shark!’” Watson said.

As Watson and his wife, Sally Watson, quickly herded their three children out of the water, the drone snapped a second picture.

"You can see them running, you can see the sand scattering everywhere from their movement and then you can see the shark make that turn and start heading back out into the water," Dan Watson told the CBC.

He said after the incident June 22, he started to doubt whether he actually saw what he thought he did but quickly verified it was a shark once he looked at the photos.

The next weekend, a shark bit a teenager on the foot at the same beach.
Watson said the next time he and his family goes to the beach, they'll focus on their "sandcastle skills."

About the Author