Featured Image Credit: OceanX
If you’ve got a fear of deep water, then perhaps footage of a prehistoric shark swimming around the deep depths of the ocean won’t help, but it’s a fascinating sight nonetheless.
A video captured by an OceanX submersible has resurfaced online, showing an absolutely jaw-dropping encounter with a prehistoric predator lurking on the
ocean floor.
The mind-blowing clip, originally shared by OceanX on YouTube back in 2019, shows the moment a team of scientists came face-to-face with a massive bluntnose sixgill shark — an ancient species that has been around since before the dinosaurs.
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In the footage, the shark can be seen swimming up to the sub, leaving the team completely stunned. The OceanX mission was working alongside the Cape Eleuthera Institute with one major goal: to become the first submersible team to tag this elusive deep-sea giant while it was still in its natural habitat.
In OceanX’s description of the video, it says: "Our objective was the deep-sea shark, the bluntnose sixgill,"
"This ancient species predates most dinosaurs and is a dominant predator of the deep-sea ecosystem”, the company further explains.
Heading up the groundbreaking mission was Dr. Dean Grubbs from Florida State University’s Marine Lab, who led the team in making history. Before this, scientists could only tag sixgill sharks by bringing them up to the surface.
This time, the team managed to attach a satellite tag while the shark was still on the ocean floor — a first in marine research.
The incredible footage shows just how shocked the team was by the size of the deep-sea predator. As the shark circled the sub, one of the scientists could be heard exclaiming: "Oh, wow! Look at the width of that thing!"
At one point, the massive female shark even pushed her nose up against the sub’s exterior, almost as if she was inspecting the humans inside.
The scientists hesitated to tag her while she was belly-side up, waiting for the perfect moment to get the job done. Eventually, she rolled her eyes and casually swam away, leaving the team in awe.
Bluntnose sixgill sharks can grow up to 20 feet long, but encounters like this are incredibly rare. Given their deep-sea lifestyle, very few people have ever seen one up close — let alone tagged one in its natural environment.
Viewers of the viral video were just as blown away as the researchers. One person commented: "If not the size, this shark’s eye alone would have given me a straight heart attack." Another wrote: "That eye close-up was wicked." A third simply added: "Scientists, 'Whoa.' That’s when you know it’s serious."
This historic moment proves just how much of the ocean is still a mystery—and if this clip is anything to go by, there are some seriously huge creatures lurking down there.
