It’s not unknown, because Divernet reported on a similar encounter in May last year, but it’s rare enough to get marine biologists excited: a bluntnose six-gill shark hanging out in shallow waters off Canada’s Pacific coast.
“The find of a lifetime,” was how Mitchell Hewitt described his encounter on the evening of 8 August. “I have been diving every single day this summer to find one of these sharks.”
The field marine biologist, who works for Keystone Environmental, is more usually engaged in observing the behaviour of the area’s cephalopods and lumpsuckers. He spotted the shark while diving off the community of Lions Bay in Howe Sound to the north of Vancouver.
The shark, a male juvenile he reckoned to be about 2.5m long, was swimming over the seabed at a depth of about 15m. Hewitt and his group were able to spend about 10 minutes observing the shark (Hexanchus griseus), which even decided to swim between his legs at one point.
Bluntnose six-gills, also called cow sharks, are typically found at depths between 100 and 2,000m, though juveniles occasionally venture into shallow waters at night in search of prey. Off British Columbia females also sometimes come into the coast to give birth, with litters that can number more than 100 pups.
The species is one of the world’s biggest sharks, and can grow up to 6m long and weigh 600kg.
“It was just a gentle giant, like a big sea puppy,” Hewitt told CTV News. He said that he had been “breathing about as hard as a person can because I was freaking out. I was on pins and needles for hours after that.“
Last year divemaster Matteo Endrizzi had also referred to a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” when he and his group encountered a 2m juvenile in Albernini Inlet, further west off Vancouver Island, while on a 20m-deep wreck-dive. They said that the shark appeared to have been attracted by their lights.
Also on Divernet: 4 divers enjoy rare six-gill shark encounter, Rare bluntnose six-gill shark spotted by wreck team, New six-gill shark species identified, Trapping Zone: Mystery canteen for Maldives sharks
