Florida beachgoers are continuing to spot large sharks in the waters surrounding the Sunshine State, as various species engage in migrations that will take them into gradually warming waters beyond their winter homes.
This past Sunday, a family swimming at Bonita Beach noticed something large lurking in the nearby water, according to Wink News . Though at first believing the animal was a dolphin, they exited the surf out of an abundance of caution, a decision that proved to be wise. After just a few moments, a large shark swam into their view, very nearly washing ashore as it circled within the edge of the surf.
The unidentified beachgoers were able to film the shark as it swam back and forth at the water’s edge. The shark’s dorsal fin was clearly visible, protruding from the waves as it maneuvered in just a few feet of water, barely deep enough to cover its body. Though the species of shark was not identified, the predator measured between seven and 10 feet long, according to witnesses.
A similarly large shark also made an appearance along Florida’s gulf coast this weekend, when a pair of fisherman seeking cobia noted a fin breaking the surface near Fort Pickens. As the Pensacola News Journal points out, the anglers at first believed the shark to be a blacktip, but upon approaching the animal, determined it was a mako. Considered one of the fastest predators in the ocean, the mako was swimming just 20 yards from a nearby beach.
“He seemed like he was more interested in us than we were him,” Matt Watts noted. “He kept following the boat and turning around to come up to the boat. We could have reached out and touched it a few times.”
Watts described the shark as between eight and nine-feet-long and pointed out that the sighting marked the first time he and Captain Brian Thompson had ever stumbled upon a mako shark in the area. By the time their encounter concluded, the duo observed that the mako shark continued to swim parallel to the beach at a distance of around 100 yards.
Crazy Shark Migration Caught on Film in Louisiana. http://t.co/L4AmJatFUo @CNN #sharks #sharkmigration pic.twitter.com/mc6laeY6ab
— Salt Strong Fishing (@SaltStrong) March 26, 2015
Earlier this month, a massive gathering of sharks was filmed off an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, situated roughly 30 miles from Grand Isle. As the Inquisitr previously reported, the impressive grouping consisted mostly of blacktip and spinner sharks, engaged in their yearly migration off the Florida coast.
[Images: Matthew Watts via the Pensacola News Journal ]