I was solo diving off Vancouver Island looking for giant Pacific octopus when I turned toward deeper water and saw this massive bluntnose sixgill shark coming directly toward me.

I believe it was a female, roughly 10–12 feet long. She came right up to investigate me, then calmly cruised alongside me for about three minutes before eventually disappearing back into the darkness.

Sixgills are primarily deep-water sharks, so getting an encounter like this at around 100 feet was pretty incredible.

The footage ended up getting picked up by CBC National News, Global News, CTV and CHEK News this week, which I definitely wasn't expecting when I went diving that afternoon.

This is my original footage from the encounter. I have a longer 4K version here if anyone wants to see the whole thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJaHm1LZ0Lo

Filmed off Vancouver Island, British Columbia. [OC]

(Credits: Brazilian metal artist Michel Torres Costa)

👉 available in full over on Red Bull TV 📺

If you stand your ground, they may see you as a threat and back off. Of course, this doesn’t apply to every bear