A marine documentarian has released new drone footage showing a swimmer remaining in the water as six juvenile great white sharks circled nearby off the Southern California coast.
Carlos Gauna, 44, who operates online as The Malibu Artist, captured the encounter last Friday in shallow waters between Santa Barbara and Malibu, according to his Instagram post. The footage shows the lone swimmer standing chest-deep as several sharks moved through the area around him.
Gauna wrote on Instagram that lifeguards attempted to warn the man about the predators.
“One swimmer. Six great white sharks nearby,” he wrote alongside the footage.
One lifeguard even paddled out directly to the swimmer, Gauna said. The man chose to stay in the ocean anyway.
From his aerial vantage point, Gauna could see sharks that likely remained invisible to the swimmer below the surface.
One juvenile shark passed within roughly a body length of the man before turning and making a second close pass, Gauna told Surfer.com.
Gauna said on Instagram that Southern California’s shallow coastline serves as critical habitat for juvenile white sharks.
“Southern California’s shallow coastline is an important habitat for juvenile white sharks, which means encounters between sharks and people probably happen far more often than we realize and almost always without incident,” he wrote.
The documentarian regularly uses drones to observe sharks along the Southern California coast. He has built a substantial archive of footage showing ocean predators and beachgoers sharing the same waters.
Gauna warned his followers not to grow complacent about shark presence in the region.
“With that mind, don’t get too comfortable, l do see adult 13–15 footers weekly as well,” he wrote on Instagram, using a lowercase “l” in place of “I.”
One of the six juveniles was a shark Gauna had previously observed and nicknamed “Tina,” he told Surfer.com.
“Her comfort around people was visible,” he said of the shark. Gauna has tracked Tina growing increasingly accustomed to sharing coastal waters with humans without showing aggressive behavior.
Gauna emphasized that actual shark bites remain extraordinarily uncommon despite routine close proximity between humans and great whites.
“Despite how close and often people and sharks come together in the water, actual bites remain remarkably rare,” he told Surfer.com.
The footage marks the latest in a series of viral shark encounters Gauna has documented along the California coast. His work frequently captures surfers, swimmers, and sharks occupying the same shallow waters without conflict.
Marine biologists have noted that juvenile great white sharks favor the warm, shallow nursery waters of Southern California, where they feed primarily on fish and rays rather than large mammals.
Gauna’s documentation comes as shark sightings have increased along the California coast in recent years, partly due to growing populations of both sharks and drone operators capable of spotting them.
His social media accounts have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers drawn to the striking aerial perspectives of these often-misunderstood predators.
The swimmer’s decision to remain in the water despite lifeguard warnings drew mixed reactions online, though Gauna’s commentary focused on educating viewers rather than criticizing the man’s choice.
Gauna plans to continue his documentation work along the Southern California coast throughout the summer shark season.