The same species of shark that inspired Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” was seen in Del Mar, California earlier this year on 30 September. Immortalised by Scott Fairchild’s drone footage, the great white shark was swimming just below a child’s surfboard as he was lying on it.
Without moving, the child noticed the animal and just watched it swimming next to him.
Mr Fairchild shared the thrilling footage on Instagram.
“Brave kid!” he wrote in the caption.
“This rather thick Great White Shark cruised right through the surfers and this kid saw it!” he added.
The 2020 worldwide shark attack summary identified 57 unprovoked attacks, which was lower than the average of 80 attacks a year between 2015 and 2019.
“As we first reported in June, the observed drop in shark bite incidents may have been caused by the widespread quarantines, closed beaches and minimised vacation travel in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) in a statement.
The odds of being killed by a shark in the US remain very low with 3,748,067 to 1.
On the contrary, humans kill about 100 million sharks and rays each year.
Most are killed by commercial fishermen for their fins and flesh.
Bees, wasps, dogs and snakes are responsible for far more deaths each year in the US than sharks, said the ISAF.