Great white sharks circle swimmer off California coast in new video

A swimmer stayed in the water as six great white sharks prowled nearby off the Southern California coast, even after lifeguards tried to warn him about the predators.

Drone footage captured by marine documentarian Carlos Gauna — known online as The Malibu Artist — showed the man in shallow coastal waters between Santa Barbara and Malibu as several juvenile great white sharks moved through the area.

Gauna said lifeguards tried to alert the swimmer and one even paddled out to him, but he chose to remain in the ocean.

From his vantage point above the water, Gauna could see sharks that may not have been visible to the man below.

One juvenile shark eventually passed within roughly a body length of the swimmer before turning around and making another close pass.

“One swimmer. Six great white sharks nearby,” Gauna wrote on Instagram alongside footage of the encounter.

The documentarian regularly uses drones to observe sharks off the Southern California coast and has captured numerous instances of the ocean predators and beachgoers occupying the same waters.

Southern California’s shallow coastline provides important habitat for juvenile great white sharks, meaning humans may cross paths with them more frequently than beachgoers realize, Gauna said.

“Southern California’s shallow coastline is an important habitat for juvenile white sharks, which means encounters between sharks and people probably happen far more often than we realize and almost always without incident,” he wrote.

But Gauna warned that larger sharks also regularly move through the area.

“With that in mind, don’t get too comfortable, l do see adult 13–15 footers weekly as well,” he said.

Gauna told Surfer.com one of the six juveniles was a shark he had previously observed and nicknamed “Tina.”

“Her comfort around people was visible,” he said of the shark, which he has watched grow increasingly accustomed to sharing coastal waters with humans without displaying aggressive behavior.

Even with the risky encounter, Gauna noted shark bites remain exceptionally uncommon, even as humans and great white sharks routinely occupy the same coastal waters.

“Despite how close and often people and sharks come together in the water, actual bites remain remarkably rare,” he told the outlet.

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