Incredible moment dad uses his drone to save beachgoers from a potential shark attack after spotting a great white and two bronze whalers stalking swimmers
- A drone videographer spotted the three sharks
- He saw the shark just metres away from swimmers
- Lifeguards were quickly alerted and the beach closed
A wildlife videographer at one of his favourite shooting locations managed to save swimmers from a potential attack after spotting three sharks hanging around the shores of a popular beach.
British expat David Alphonoso, his wife Kirsty and their two-year-old sun Sonny were enjoying a family day out with his London-based dad and Sydneysider brother at Meelup Beach, 250km south of Perth, when they made the discovery on Saturday.
Mr Alphonoso and his brother had walked from the beach to a nearby headland – one of his regular filming spots – to launch his drone.
The pair were watching the live drone footage from an iPad when they saw a shark just metres from the beach.
Wildlife videographer David Alphonoso spotted a large shark (above) near the shore at Meelup Beach, WA
‘It was about two to three metres from the shore, where it was really shallow, and it was swimming towards swimmers,’ Mr Alphonoso told Daily Mail Australia.
He said the shark looked to be a two-metre long bronze whaler so he quickly Facetimed his wife to raise the alarm.
‘I told her “you better go get the lifeguard, there’s a shark hanging around the swimmers”,’ he said.
‘We showed him the drone footage of the shark through Facetime so he went to have a closer look.’
The lifeguard evacuated swimmers from the water and headed out on a jetski where Mr Alphonoso was able to use the drone to guide him to where the shark was.
Mr Alphonoso (pictured with his wife Kirsty) said he also saw two other sharks from his drone
‘In the footage you can see him pointing to the shark,’ he said.
‘He must’ve thought it was serious enough to call the helicopter, it was there 15 minutes later and sounded the shark alarm.’
Meelup Beach was closed for four hours while about 100 beachgoers waited for the shark to move along.
However, in that time Mr Alphonoso said he spotted two other shark floating around the beach.
One was another bronze whaler of a similar size but the other looked to be a three-metre long great white.
‘It was about half a kilometre from the beach so I called the lifeguard again to warn him,’ he said.
‘They’ve got a bit of a resident great white hanging around there at the moment.
‘He told me a couple days before they’d had to rescue a pair of swimmers from the rocks because they spotted a three-metre great white in the water.’
Meelup Brach (above)was closed for four hours while swimmers waited for the three sharks to move on
Mr Alphonoso is a passionate wildlife videographer who regularly shares shark content on his Instagram page.
He said that while he was quick to ensure the water was evacuated, it’s unlikely the sharks posed any real threat to the swimmers.
‘I love sharks, I think it’s unfair they’re so vilified,’ he said.
‘They can be scary but there’s such a small chance they pose any real danger.
‘They’re an essential and important part of out ecosystem, we shouldn’t be vilifying them.’
For Mr Alphonoso, the worst part of the day was having to put up with jokes from his British dad that he’d ruined everyone’s fun.
‘He kept taking the mickey out of me for closing the beach down in 35C,’ Mr Alphonoso said.
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