Vancouver Island diver captures rare shark encounter

Vancouver Island diver Carl Sorenson was on the lookout for octopus, a sight he encounters regularly, when he came across something very unexpected.

“This shark was about five feet away and coming at me with its mouth open,” Sorenson told Global News.

“I started screaming in my regulator and then I realized you got to get your camera on, so I hit record right away.”

Sorenson managed to capture a massive bluntnose sixgill shark, getting close enough for it to bounce off his camera gear.

He stayed with the shark for about three minutes before it made its way out to deeper water.

“It wasn’t on my bingo card that day,” he said. “I’ve got about 1,200 dives all around Vancouver Island and I have never seen a sixgill shark.

“It’s just a very rare thing for us to see here and that’s why it’s at the top of every diver’s bucket list.”

The bluntnose sixgill shark is a large deep-water species and while they are not uncommon in B.C. waters, seeing them at a recreational diving depth is.

Sorenson said it may have come into the shallow waters at the Madrona Diving Site near Parksville to mate or to give birth.

He said they also could have come to find octopus, just like he was looking for.

“Because they eat octopus and I was in an area with a lot of octopus, so maybe that was also a part of why it was there as well,” he added.

“When it came at me with its mouth open, it definitely wasn’t in an aggressive way,” he added.

Sorenson said the video he posted has received lots of excitement and comments online.