ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A hammerhead shark was spotted swimming chillingly close to beachgoers in St. Petersburg just one day before two life-altering shark attacks along Florida's Gulf Coast.
The video, captured by kayak company See Through Canoe, was captured on June 6. It shows a hammerhead shark circling two paddleboarders and later racing close to the shore in search of tarpon.
The paddleboarders can be seen pointing at the shark in a seemingly calm manner as they continue paddling past the cold-blooded creature.
In the video, a swimmer about waist-deep in the water points out three large tarpons approaching two other people before all the swimmers scurry away from the fish.
"... the tarpon were swimming really close to the shoreline and through people in an effort to avoid the shark. Eventually the Hammerhead Shark managed to catch a good sized tarpon," See Through Canoe wrote on YouTube.
The hammerhead shark was spotted only a day before three people were injured in two separate shark attacks in the Florida Panhandle.
In the first attack, a 45-year-old woman, identified as wife and mother Elisabeth Foley, lost her left hand and suffered severe injuries to her midsection.
About four miles away, 15-year-old Lulu Gribbin had her left hand and right leg amputated. Gribbin's friend, McCray Faust, suffered minor injuries to her foot in the same attack.
It's not clear which species of shark was involved in the Panhandle attacks.
Hammerhead sharks are native to Florida and can grow to be about 18-19 feet long, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The sharks inhabit the open ocean and the shallow coastal waters of both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida.
FWC says hammerheads are considered to be dangerous, ranking seventh in unprovoked bites on humans. There has never been a recorded death caused by a hammerhead shark, according to the Australian Marina Conservation Society.
