Watch as this blue-coloured shark was seen circling round and round a small fishing boat: coming eye to eye with the lone fisherman.
The eight-foot fish, thought to be a porbeagle shark, swims four times round the 23 foot fishing boat in this stunning video.
Aptly named Ken Pike, who shot the footage, watches as the animal slowly glides past and performs majestic turns: lifting itself out of the water and looking him straight in the eye.
At one point the curious creature knocks on the side of Ken’s boat, causing the little craft to judder under his feet, he said.
The grandfather of three hams up a monologue in the video for grandkids Jake, five, Evie, three, and Billy, two.
Ken, 73, a retired nursing tutor from Hales Owen in the west midlands, encountered the shark three miles off the coast south of Plymouth around 10am on Friday July 2.
He said: “It was fantastic.
“So beautiful to be so close to nature.
“It felt like such a privilege that of all the people that go out there it chose me to say hello to.
“I wasn’t at all frightened, just very proud to be honoured by its presence.
“Initially I heard this sound like a dolphin blowing.
“I looked up and could see this shark quietly gliding along beside the boat.
“It looked at me with it’s beautiful big eye and grinned.
“I just watched it: it was so exhilarating.
“It swam around six times in total.
“My grandchildren were chuffed as anything to get the video: Jake is the expert in sharks.
Friends of Ken’s who identified the shark said they thought it would weigh about 200 pounds (90kg).
A close relative of the great white, porbeagle sharks are often seen further out, but Ken believes climate change brings them closer to shore as they follow their prey into the warmer costal waters.
Ken was fishing for pollock and bass, with his mackerel-baited lines around 80 foot down and explained the shark hadn’t come to his boat in search of food.
“Some people have fished these waters for 30 years and never seen one”, added Ken, who spends about four months of the year leisure fishing in the area on his Merry Fisher boat.
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