A diver has shared the incredible moment she came face-to-face with a megamouth shark.
Bee Smith, from the UK, was swimming off the coast of Hualien, in Taiwan, on 7 June when she came across the rarely-seen, prehistoric shark.
Megamouths are an extremely rare type of shark which have only been sighted 273 times.
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They dwell in deep waters during the day and only come to the surface at night following plankton.
Bee also shared a clip of the amazing experience to TikTok where the video has gathered over 10,600 views so far.
“She was a very big female,” the 23-year-old content creator told What’s The Jam.
“For the very first moment, I couldn’t believe it was real.
“I have seen a dead megamouth specimen before but it did not prepare me at all for seeing an alive one.
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“They are the most beautiful, crazy-looking, giant shark.
“It is only really after the encounter was over that I could process what happened, and I was so happy when I got back on the boat.”
Bee said she had no concerns swimming with the beast.
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She said: “It is a harmless, filter-feeding shark.
“It was also calm, and was clearly aware of me and my team members’ presence.
“Making eye contact with the megamouths is something I will never forget.
“They have beautiful, large, brown eyes, that kind of look like a doll’s.
“The few pictures you can find online of megamouths definitely do not do their eyes justice.
“They’re just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
In the video, Bee can be seen swimming in dark water before the megamouth makes an appearance.
They calmly and slowly swim next to each other, making eye contact and peacefully floating.
The post has gained over 1,600 likes and plenty of comments from fans.
One person said: “Ludicrous achievement, well done man.”
Cookie added: “That’s class.”
Someone else wrote: “Amazing.”
Kayla commented: “Incredible!”
Another user added: “I would be sobbing.”
Bee fell in love with sharks when she was just 13 and says her goal has always been to help protect them.
She said: “This encounter meant so much to me
“Personally it meant a lot because my childhood love of sharks began with the weird deep-sea species.”
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