Christopher Turgeon knows when one of his parasailing passengers has seen a great white shark lingering below as the thrill-seekers hover above the sea.

“You can tell when they see the sharks, they don’t want to get their feet wet. Sometimes we drag their feet in the water,” said Turgeon, owner of Dana Point Parasail. “All of a sudden, they have their feet lifted up.”

Then, of course, there’s the screams of “shaaaaaaark” that pierce the otherwise calm coastal waters.

It’s a new adventure for adrenaline junkies who want to get up-close with great whites that have been hanging around near Dana Point: parasailing over sharks.

It wasn’t an intentional part of the business plan when Turgeon launched Dana Point Parasail in the Dana Point Harbor last spring, but with shark sightings exploding in nearby waters since May, it’s become a thrill for people hoping to get an aerial glimpse of great whites.

Experts say they’ve never seen so many sharks close to shore, from Seal Beach to San Clemente. They credit protections against sharks and their food sources that have been in place for the past three decades, as well as other factors such as changing sea temperatures and El Niño conditions in recent years.

Those sightings — while hurting some local businesses such as surf shops and schools — have prompted creative ventures for tour companies.

Shark Tours, launched this year by Dana Wharf Whale Watching, sold out week after week when great whites were spotted off Capo Beach in Dana Point. But the charter boat company recently stopped offering the shark-specific tours, instead incorporating the sporadic sightings into their regular whale-watching outings, said Dana Wharf Whale Watching manager Donna Kalez.

With Dana Point Parasail, Turgeon said passengers would see sharks from above “just about every day.”

“They are right up on the surf line,” he said. “They aren’t bugging anybody.” Though he admits: “It’s really scary seeing them from above.”

In a recent video, which has been viewed about 3,000 times on social media, an excited duo screams at the sight of sharks below during a parasailing outing.

“That’s awesome!” a male’s voice can be heard yelling as he films the shark below. “Dip our feet in next to it!”

“Nooo!” a woman responds. “Take a picture!”

“Yo, look at the shaaark!” the male screams, before the video ends abruptly.

Turgeon said the longest stretch during which they’ve seen sharks is 53 days in a row. A swell mucked up the water for four days, but when it cleared they saw sharks for another 15 straight days.

“As long as it’s really nice and it’s not a big groundswell that kicks up dirt in the water, we see them every time we go out there,” he said.

He said about half his customers ask to scout out sharks to view from above. They are mostly seen in front of Capo Beach or south of the river mouth at Doheny, in front of the campgrounds.

“The people that know the sharks are here, they ask about it. They are going because they want to see them,” he said. “I’ll purposely go in that area so they have a higher chance of seeing them.

And when they are above a shark, he makes sure to give people a thrill they’ll never forget.

“I float them above. I can swing the parasail down and I can float them right on top of them,” he said.

So far, though people may be fearful, they walk away with a unique experience.

Most of the time they are really excited. Everyone who has seen them has been really stoked,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”