Pulling back a sandbar shark off Florida beach. Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/Elliottphotos.

COCOA BEACH (USA)- In the US state of Florida sharks near the surf are not a strange sight. Yesterday around noon a shark approximately 5 feet long swam into less than 3 inches of water near where a large group of young children were playing in the sand.

A Brevard County Ocean Rescue lifeguard came rushing down the crowded beach to intercept the shark, witnesses say.  The lifeguard then grabbed the shark by the tail and pulled it back into deeper water where it was released.
The lifeguard was then joined by other lifeguards calling swimmers out of the water just south of the Cocoa Beach Pier to avoid the shark.  As seen in the video below, a bystander gives the lifeguard a pat on the back for a job well done.

As reported by Brevard Times in its surf report over the last few weeks, small sharks have been spotted chasing bait fish into the shallow surf. Brevard County surpassed Volusia County as the #1 county in Florida for shark attacks. Florida remains the number #1 state in the U.S. for shark attacks.