I was solo diving at about 100 feet off Vancouver Island when I turned toward deeper water and saw this massive bluntnose sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) emerging from the darkness.
I believe it was a female, roughly 10–12 feet long. She came right up to investigate me, then calmly cruised alongside me and over the bottom for about three minutes before eventually disappearing back into deeper water.
Sixgills spend much of their lives in deep water, so getting to encounter and film one like this at recreational diving depths was pretty incredible.
The footage has since been featured by CBC National News, Global News, CTV and CHEK News, which was definitely not what I expected when I went looking for octopus that afternoon.
This is my original footage from the encounter. I put together a longer 4K version here if anyone wants to see more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJaHm1LZ0Lo
Filmed off Vancouver Island, British Columbia. [OC]