WATCH: Giant Tiger Shark Swimming Near Florida Beachgoers, Drone Video Shows

A large tiger shark was seen Friday near the South Beach in Miami, Florida, swimming dangerously close to beachgoers, who had no idea a predator was floating inches away from them. Photographer Kenny Melendez was flying his drone above the South Beach waters at 8 a.m. EST on Nov. 24, hoping to get some scenic shots and show his cousin how drones work, when he noticed a sizeable shadow near a swimmer, Miami Herald reported.

That is when he panned the drone camera close to the water, hovering it just 15 feet above the surface. As it turned out, the shadow was an enormous tiger shark that was swimming really close to the sandy beach of Miami.

Melendez decided to let his drone follow the shark around for the next 10 minutes, as it swam up to unsuspecting beachgoers wading in the waters. Although the shark was swimming a few feet away from the people, they seem to be unperturbed by the aquatic visitor, probably because they had not noticed its fin circling the area.

Melendez said he was not standing in hearing distance of the beachgoers, so he could not warn them about the impending danger approaching them. And there was no way for them to know about it without the warning.

“The perspective is much different with a drone,” said Melendez. “You can’t see the same things from eye level.”

Although Melendez was pretty sure his drone captured the footage of a tiger shark, Miami Beach’s Ocean Rescue chief Vince Canosa, 35, said he could not rule out the possibility it was a different species of shark.

He added it was not uncommon to see a migratory school of blacktip sharks swimming in from the Carolinas in search of the bait fish and warmer water during this time of the year, but they are not known to pose a threat to people coming for a swim in the beach.

“They don’t hang around too long,” Canosa said. “It's their home and we are in it.”