In Vancouver Island’s Alberni Inlet, a 2-meter bluntnose sixgill shark was seen near a shipwreck
During a recent dive in Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a group of scuba divers saw a blunt-nosed six-gill shark. They say this is a rare sighting of the animal in shallow water.
Connor McTavish says that he and divers Garrett Clement, Danton West, and Matteo Endrizzi were looking around a shipwreck at the end of last month when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
McTavish says he used a flashlight and hand signals to tell the others that he saw a big shark. At first, they didn’t believe him, but when they saw the shark on their cameras, which was about two meters long, they were amazed.
“I was just thinking that I’m right in my element. It’s just interesting. ” All you have to do is stay calm and let it pass. That’s the best I can do,” said McTavish. “Most of the time, they were just amazed at how beautiful the thing was.”
Clement says that McTavish is the diver with the least experience with sharks, which is why he didn’t believe him at first.
“I remember looking at him and going, ‘Really?’ We go over, and there’s nothing there, but he’s looking around like a madman. We don’t see anything. We can’t really talk when we’re scuba diving, so we just continue on our dive.”
He says that after ten minutes, their underwater dive turned into something they won’t soon forget.
“We just walked next to the shipwreck. We were just looking down when someone’s flashlight caught the outline of a shark swimming along the shipwreck’s bottom.
Sixgill shark a rare sigh
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says that the six-gill shark, or Hexanchus griseus, can grow to be as long as 4.8 meters and has two rows of teeth.
Endrizzi says he was excited by what he saw, but he’s most glad he had his camera with him so he could record video of what they saw.
“Most of the time, these sharks live at a depth of 2,500 meters,” he said.
“It’s a shark from deep water, and no one knows why it comes to shallow water. There are many ideas, but nobody knows for sure.”
After that, the divers put the video on the YouTube channel for Clement’s Uncharted Odyssey.
Watch: A bluntnose six-gill shark swims near the wreck of a ship in Alberni Inlet.
Endrizzi says that the group contacted the DFO to let them know about the sighting. He says that the DFO was “very grateful” to hear about the sighting because it doesn’t happen very often.
Endrizzi said, “It’s rare for someone to see one, but if they do, they should definitely contact DFO so that data can be recorded and we can learn more about these cool animals.”
Rarely aggressive to human
Marine biologist Chris Harvey-Clark from Dalhousie University in Halifax has studied blunt-nosed six-gill sharks in the waters off Vancouver. He said the species has a big mouth and saw-like teeth and eats everything, but he doesn’t think swimmers should worry too much about being eaten.
“This species has been seen by a lot of divers, but no one has ever really had a bad experience with a sixgill,” he said.
Harvey-Clark added that they move slowly and stay in one place most of the time. They eat things that are already dead, which is why they like them.
“Throw some salmon guts on the bottom if you want to see a sixgill really get going… That’s what they really want.”