It was a bizarre scene — dozens of sharks swimming, circling through the water not far from where beachgoers were frolicking in the surf.

While it might have been a scene from a movie, it happened at Orange Beach this week, with the shark-infested waters near Alabama Point captured on drone footage by local resident Rex Jones Wednesday.

It’s not uncommon for sharks to come near shore, but the sheer number of sharks captured in the footage is striking.

According to Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism, of the 50 species of sharks found in the Gulf of Mexico, beachgoers and fishermen can encounter 20 to 30.

“Most of those are really small and only pose an aggravation to the fishermen,” said Dr. Sean Powers, department head for the University of South Alabama’s Marine and Environmental Sciences department.

Powers said most sharks that inhabit shallow water near shore are “really small,” with the most common the Atlantic sharpnose, which reaches a maximum size of about 3 1/2 feet.

Spinner and blacktip sharks are also known to come near shore. It was difficult to determine from Wednesday’s drone footage what type of sharks were in the water.

Powers also said shark sightings near the beach start to increase in June.

“Even the small ones will be offshore in more stable temperatures until the water warms up, and they come inshore to feed,” he said.

“Then, when it gets too hot in August and September, they kind of retreat. They are really temperature sensitive. They don’t like it too cold or too hot.”