Isn't this Ft. Walton/Destin area?? Pensacola Beach has had fairly recent shark attacks IIRC.
Just east of DEstin by the Mall, Silver Sands. You can walk down there.
Yes, it's not far from Pensacola.
Last time I was down there, we went swimming at Navarre Beach (as usual.) A school of large fish came near us, jumping frantically out of the water. I immediately headed toward shore. A woman near us laughed at me, and said they were just fish. I told her "I know, but what are they trying to get away from?" She just poopooed me, and stayed where she was. (I thought about zebras crossing crocodile infested rivers.) About half an hour to an hour later, a boy was attacked by a shark farther down the beach, in the direction the fish had been swimming.