Shark Sighting at Meelup Beach, WA: British Expat Spots Great White Shark From a Drone

A British father used his drone to save beachgoers from a possible attack after spotting three sharks stalking the shores of a popular beach in Australia.

David Alphonso, his wife Kirsty and their two-year-old son Sonny enjoyed a family day out with his London-based father and Sydney-based brother at Meelup Beach, 250km south of Perth.

Mr Alphonso, who moved to Australia eight years ago, walked with his brother from the beach to a nearby headland to launch his drone from a regular filming location.

The couple were watching live drone footage from an iPad when they spotted a shark just meters from the beach.

Wildlife videographer David Alphonso spotted a large shark (above) off the shore of Meelup Beach, WA

Mr Alphonso told MailOnline: “Within 30 seconds I immediately noticed a shark in the shallows.

“It was about two to ten feet from shore where it was very shallow and it was swimming towards swimmers.

“The nearest beach had hundreds of people because it was the summer holidays for the Christmas holidays.”

He said the shark looked like a six-foot-long bronze whaler, so he quickly Facetimed his wife to sound the alarm.

“I told her, ‘You’d better get the lifeguard, there’s a shark hanging around the swimmers,'” he said.

“We showed him the drone footage of the shark via Facetime, so he took a closer look.”

The lifeguard evacuated swimmers from the water and went out on a jet ski where Mr Alphonso was able to guide him with the drone to where the shark was located.

Mr Alphonso (pictured with his wife Kirsty) said he also saw two other sharks from his drone

He said: “I flew the drone around the corner where he launched the jet ski so he could follow me.

“He was following the drone around the headland and I was pacing the drone when I saw the shark.

“In the footage you can see him pointing at the shark,” he said.

“He must have thought it was serious enough to call the helicopter, he was there 15 minutes later and set off the shark alert.”

Meelup Beach was closed for four hours while about 100 beachgoers waited for the shark to move on.

However, during that time Mr Alphonso said he spotted two other sharks swimming around the beach.

One was another bronze whaler of similar size, but the other looked like a ten foot great white.

“It was about half a kilometer from the beach, so I called the lifeguard again to warn him,” he said.

“They have something of a resident great white there at the moment.

“He told me that a few days ago they had to rescue two swimmers off the rocks because they spotted a ten foot white in the water.”

Meelup Brach (above) was closed for four hours while swimmers waited for the three sharks to move on

Mr. Alphonso is a passionate wildlife filmmaker who regularly shares shark content on his Instagram page.

He said that while he was quick to evacuate the water, it was unlikely that the sharks posed a real threat to the swimmers.

“I love sharks, I think it’s unfair that they are so vilified,” he said.

“They can be scary, but the likelihood of them posing any real danger is so small.

“They are an essential and important part of our ecosystem, we shouldn’t denigrate them.”

For Mr Alphonso, the worst part of the day was having to endure jokes from his British father that he was spoiling everyone’s fun.

“He kept teasing me about closing the beach in the 35th C,” Mr Alphonso said.