Filming a Large Sixgill Shark at 100 Feet Off Vancouver Island

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.