A boy vacationing in the Bahamas may owe his life to a drone operator, who was able to warn the young beachgoer when a group of sharks started zeroing in on his location. The harrowing footage (as shown below) captures the boy as he jumps into the warm Caribbean waters (just a mere few yards from the shoreline), after which he begins splashing and frolicking without having any awareness of the impending danger. A group of sharks that looked to be at least 6-8 feet in length appear, and seem to beeline toward the young swimmer, whose actions in the water may have depicted injured or struggling prey.
It was at this time when Artem Tkachenko, the drone operator, started shouting for the boy to vacate the water. Despite one of the sharks coming within a few feet of the boy, he managed to escape without injury. Tkachenko says he was using his drone to capture footage of the beach’s breathtaking shorelines and turquoise waters, when he noticed the four black shadows come into frame. Shark attack-related fatalities have been relatively rare in recent years, with an average of six occurring worldwide between 2004 and 2015. While the species of shark captured in the footage wasn’t confirmed, bull, lemon, tiger, hammerhead, Caribbean reef, and oceanic whitetip sharks (all of which have documented instances of attacking people in the past) are thriving in this region of the world.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)