On a cloudy recent morning, shark researchers from Cal State Long Beach followed a young white shark as it wound its way along the shore off Del Mar in San Diego County.

Using a drone to spot the animal and an inflatable boat to follow it, they traced the shark’s path across the rocky reef as it darted past surfers.

The footage they captured didn’t represent a rare appearance of the ocean predator among beachgoers, but an everyday occurrence on the Southern California coastline. White sharks, known popularly as great whites, are regular visitors that share the sea with us daily, new studies are finding.

Classic horror films notwithstanding, juvenile white sharks glide every day among surfers, swimmers and paddle-boarders, generally without incident.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.