Jacob Allen was enjoying a day on the water when he was suddenly circled by the world’s second-largest shark, measuring 25 feet.
The 28-year-old paddleboarder was off the Scottish coast in East Lothian’s Dunbar Harbour last week when he spotted the basking shark and captured his encounter on video, calling it his “best wildlife encounter ever.”
“I left Dunbar Harbour, and had only been on the paddle for 20 minutes when I noticed a bloom of plankton in the water,” the Dunbar native told Kennedy News.
That’s when he noticed two basking sharks in the water.
“Then one of the sharks started to head towards me in my direction, which made me feel a bit apprehensive at first,” he said.
“Thankfully, because of the time, weather conditions and lack of current, I was able to remain as still as possible so I didn’t disturb any water, paddle or make quick movements.”
Luckily for Allen, basking sharks are widely considered gentle giants — they pose no threat to humans.
“It was clearly close enough to know I was there,” he said, estimating that the shark was about 25 feet long. “My apprehensiveness of whether it knew I was there was fading, because it had to know I was there — it was so close.”
It kept circling Allen, he recalled, but he was eventually able to slip his camera under the water to capture chilling footage of the open-mouthed filter feeder swimming calmly by him, jaws agape to capture plankton, large gills flaring.
At the time, he was able to FaceTime his fiancee and infant son to show them the magnificent moment in nature.
“What struck me the most was the dark Scottish waters, and then just seeing that large mouth come towards me,” said Allen, who eventually drifted back to shore that day to avoid disturbing the sharks.
“It was pretty eerie.”
Yet, it was his “best wildlife encounter ever” — the wildlife photographer couldn’t even sleep that night because of the sheer adrenaline still coursing through his veins.
Now, he’s welcoming researchers to contact him if his footage can aid scientific investigations into the species.
“It was the most amazing wildlife encounter I’ve ever had, and I was exceptionally lucky to have the experience,” said Allen, who is just one of several reports of basking shark spottings off the Dunbar coast in recent weeks.