One minute you're enjoying a leisurely family day at the beach, and the next, you're a spectator at what can only be described as a shark feeding frenzy.

The feeding action was filmed by Blake and Tyra Whitlow, who were visiting a beach in Panama City, Florida with their kids when they spotted the sharks moving in from a distance. Before long, dozens of the predators were in hot pursuit of a school of fish, churning up a large stretch of water.  

It's tricky to identify the species in attendance, but George Burgess, a shark researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History, speculates we're looking at blacktips or spinners, reports National Geographic.

Burgess adds that the fishy feast is most likely made up of mullet, fish that tend to frequent near-shore waters in the area at this time of year.

“The sharks keep circling the fish, driving them toward the middle. They can run them right up on the beach. They can do this for quite a while before they’re full,” he tells NatGeo.

One particularly enthusiastic shark seems to run into problems in the shallows amid the feeding free-for-all, at which point a spectator appears to try to nudge it back into deeper water. Good intentions aside, it goes without saying that approaching a group of sharks mid-feast is not a great idea.

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Top header image: Peter Smithson, Flickr