People Are Terrified After Deep Sea Camera Captures a Prehistoric Creature With ‘Human-Like Eyes'

No one knows anything about the secret lives of sharks. These bizarre, raptorial predators skulk coolly and calmly in the phantasmagorical depths of the dark waters, patrolling the seagrass, emerging only to trick a fish and pounce upon it as soon as they get the chance. The appearance of a shark’s streamlined, torpedo-like silhouette can instantly send a human’s heartbeats racing with the primal fear of underwater predators. While the instinctual part of our brains tries to protect us from this predator, the curious, adventurous part actually finds the experience breathtaking, despite that it emanates unsettling vibes. In 2019, OceanX (@OceanX) researchers plunged inside the Bahamas’ waters to tag a bluntnose sixgill shark for the "first time ever."

As the researchers gazed through the glassy walls of their submarine, recording the entire thing on camera, their jaws dropped open as a gargantuan shark harpooned its way toward their vessel, offering a rare glimpse of its ferocious mouth and sharp triangular teeth. The footage of this encounter sent shivers down people’s spines. The eerie footage opens with a shot of their submersible gliding among what appeared to be a vortex of gassy lime green plumes. For a few seconds, the footage only continues with these plumes bursting from some secret place.

Then, about 11 seconds into the footage, a gigantic shark careened past the submarine, offering an ethereal peek into its wide-gaped mouth as it thrusted its giant upper jaw upwards, as if preparing to chow down the prey with its pointy teeth that resembled the tines of a fork. The greenish plumes continued to roll while the monstrous creature glided through them, flinging its tail and sneering at the camera with its predatory eye.“Wow! Look at the width of that thing,” one researcher exclaimed behind the camera. “This is a monster. She is huge,” said another. While they discussed the frightening creature, the shark propped up in the video once again, this time more gently. 

It poked its mouth at the submarine’s speargun, cupped it inside its mouth and started exploring it, as well as other equipment. Then, the basking shark did a belly flip and took a vertical position. One researcher explained that it was a female shark, perhaps even bigger than the submersible. In the video description, OceanX said that this bluntnose sixgill was the first ever shark to be tagged from a submarine. The history was made with this project in partnership with the Cape Eleuthera Institute, a team led by FSU Marine Lab's Dr. Dean Grubbs. Bluntnose sixgill sharks, they wrote, are “ancient species that predate most dinosaurs, and are a dominant predator of the deep sea ecosystem.”

Describing how the tagging affects these sharks, they said, "It's hard on them physiologically to be tagged in this way. In their typical life cycle, they won't experience daylight and very rarely the low pressure or warmer temperatures of surface waters. Typically, the data obtained after surface tagging of a six gill is believed to be skewed, as the shark does not return to its natural behaviors for some time after the tagging." They noted that this first encounter will help them "unlock the world of leviathan deep-sea dwellers and gain important insights into their movement and behavior." 

Meanwhile, viewers were spooked out by the otherworldly footage. Over 11,000 of them jumped into the comments section to express the creepy thoughts this humongous shark triggered inside them. “If not the size, this shark's eye alone would have given me a straight heart attack,” wrote @kanthector. @my2009babies1 said, “I got chills when the shark opened its eyes, never seen anything like that!”

@el5pk commented, “I imagine this is how entertained aliens sound when they're observing us from their ship.” @manspider92 exclaimed, “That human-like eye is unsettling me!” @bloblas123 cooked up a horror scenario out of this episode and said, “It´s all fun and games until the glass starts cracking.” The only word to describe this rare shark encounter is “Yikes!”