Florida surfer uses drone to capture awe-inspiring views of sharks

A Florida surfer didn’t realize just how many sharks were swimming around him until he recorded drone video over the beach.

Jeremy Johnston, 33, told CNN he was already nervous when he went to get in to water at New Smyrna Beach on Tuesday because he noticed a bunch of fishermen in the area.

“But the weather and waves were really great so I decided to go for it,” he said. “I ran out and jumped on my board when I got to shin-deep water and paddled super [shallow] with just my hands, because I was scared of how many sharks were there.”

He said he only surfed for just a little bit before getting out of the water and launched his drone.

At times in the video, a dozen sharks can be seen in the shallow water.

“I was shocked and amazed,” Johnston said about seeing how many were actually there. “I’ve only ever seen footage like that on ‘Shark Week’ and I’ve always dreamed of getting a clip like this, especially since we’re the shark bite capital of the world.”

Blacktip sharks are very common in New Smyrna Beach, so common that experts call the area the shark attack capital of the world. The International Shark Attack File estimates that anyone who has been swimming there has been within 10 feet of a shark.

In December, a 7-year-old boy was uninjured after being knocked off his board while surfing at the beach. It was all caught on video by the GoPro camera that was attached to the front of the board.

Johnston said he yelled at a couple of people to get out of the water and showed off the video to some other surfers at the beach. There was a large amount of bait fish in the water at the time, according to CNN affiliate WESH.

Johnston doesn’t want people to be scared away from the beach and he hit the waves again on Wednesday. “It should only show you how amazing and diverse our wildlife is here on the east coast of Florida,” he said.