I thought I’d share one of the more memorable encounters I’ve had while filming underwater here on Vancouver Island. I was diving at around 100 feet, originally looking for giant Pacific octopus to film, when I turned away from an octopus den and saw a large bluntnose sixgill shark emerging from the darkness and coming directly toward me.

My first few seconds of footage are a little chaotic as the shark came extremely close, but once I got myself sorted out I was able to spend roughly three minutes filming it as it slowly cruised alongside me and over the bottom. I estimate it was around 10–12 feet long and believe it may have been female.

The conditions made it an interesting filming challenge. At that depth it was extremely dark, visibility was very good though, and I obviously had no opportunity to plan the encounter or how I wanted to shoot it. I basically had to work with what I had and try not to waste the opportunity.

The footage ended up getting picked up by CBC National News, Global, CTV and CHEK, which was a pretty unexpected outcome from a dive where I was just hoping to come home with some decent octopus footage.

Wow a really good job!

One single very long tracking shot, you never lost focus or shook during the shooting. Bravo!

P.S.

At first glance, getting that close would have scared the crap out of me 😱

Serendipity. Nothing is better. Amazing footage and great patience letting her relax and the encounter happen. And your breathing rate stayed steady.... makes everyone smile who is lucky enough to see this. Thank you.

Definitely a “code brown” moment at first, but a very cool encounter. I’m amazed that the shark was so chill with you swimming alongside with lights. Thanks for sharing!

On 8/28/2026 at 7:03 AM, tiger said:

Serendipity. Nothing is better. Amazing footage and great patience letting her relax and the encounter happen. And your breathing rate stayed steady.... makes everyone smile who is lucky enough to see this. Thank you.

lol, thank you very much!

20 hours ago, Troporobo said:

Definitely a “code brown” moment at first, but a very cool encounter. I’m amazed that the shark was so chill with you swimming alongside with lights. Thanks for sharing!

I was able to keep it together and not crap my suit, lol.

On 8/28/2026 at 12:27 AM, Davide DB said:

Wow a really good job!

One single very long tracking shot, you never lost focus or shook during the shooting. Bravo!

P.S.

At first glance, getting that close would have scared the crap out of me 😱

Thank you!

Congradulations that's some beautiful Six Gill footage. Well done!