Violent Shark Feeding Frenzy Caught On Video

A family’s trip to the beach was sidelined Sunday when a shark feeding frenzy erupted dangerously close to shore.

It’s unclear what type of sharks created the spectacle or just how many there were in the water. What is clear is that swimmers were quick to get out of the water as the 3 p.m. frenzy reached a peak.

“A trip to the beach turns into kids in the water with sharks coming up close to the shore,” witness Tyra W. posted on YouTube along with video of the occurrence. “Craziest thing we’ve ever seen!”

The video begins with a few sharks spotted in the water a fair bit away from the shore. Around the half-way mark, the frenzy reaches a peak as smaller sharks move into shallow waters along the shoreline. At one point, a man’s voice is heard estimating about 50 to 60 sharks in the swarm while a woman is heard telling someone to swim to shore.

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Shark swarms are not unheard along Florida beaches and neither are sightings of a stray shark or two. Just last week a man was bitten by a spinner shark in the water off Singer Island. The commercial fisherman returned the next day to capture the creature that mistook him for food.

Back in September, a fisherman used a drone video to capture a swarm of blacktip sharks off the coast of Destin.

The end of summer and early fall tend to be considered prime time for shark attacks throughout Florida. It’s during these months that large schools of fish tend to be on the move. As those schools of fish migrate, the sharks that eat them do too, explained TCPalm. Since the bait fish that sharks eat happen to swim close to shore, the sharks follow suit.

While shark activity heats up this time of year, actual attacks are fairly rare, experts say.

“Shark attacks in general are really a nonentity when we think of causes of mortality involved with humans,” George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus, told Patch. “It’s a lot more dangerous driving to the beach.”

Florida logs an estimated 20 “bites” a year and about one fatality every decade, Burgess explained that many of those bites are akin to dog bites in their severity. Burgess said that most Florida shark attacks are “hit-and-runs” in that the sharks just take a quick grab and move on for tastier fare.

Even so, fatalities are not unheard of. After all, larger species, such as bull and tiger sharks call Florida home year-round and great whites are known to visit the area, as well.

To learn more about sharks in Florida, visit the museum online.