SixGill Shark Sighting (Video)

August 4th, 2007

Last Tuesday some dive buddies and I had the pleasure of seeing yet another SixGill shark at Cove 2. This one was approximately 8 feet long, quite a bit smaller than the 14-footer we saw last January. There have actually been numerous reports of SixGill sightings in the past couple months, by Northwest Dive Club members. Here’s some footage of the SixGill, shot with a Casio EX-Z1050 digital camera:

My dive buddy Nailer’s account of the dive:

So, Calvin and I met up with Jackie G yesterday around 6:30….after we geared up, Jackie asked me if she should bother bringing her camera. “Are we gonna see anything cool?” she asked? I told her: “I can’t promise you anything, but we DO see 6 gills here from time to time.” So she brought it. We all swam out past the orange and white can buoy a little ways and discussed our dive plan- we agreed that we’d be side by side, with Jackie in the middle, Calvin and I on either side. “Great, that way the shark will bite one of you first!” she said. So, we dropped down, got our bearings, and in the first 2 MINUTES, we practically ran into an 8 foot female Sixgill! She veered away from us, heading South towards Cove 1, following to 85-90 foot contour line- she wasn’t moving very fast, so the 3 of us swam alongside of her for approximately 4-5 minutes! What a treat. These animals are incredibly beautifull to watch- I really hope that everybody here who wants to see one gets to, someday.
Anyway, the rest of the dive was fun, but a little anti-climactic. Vis was great, maybe 30 feet at depth, yadda yadda…..did I mention we saw a shark?

The other thing that happened on this dive, I found a mask in the shallows at the end of the dive. While it isn’t uncommon to find gear left behind by divers from time to time, we’ve since figured out that this mask belonged to a diver who recently, and tragically died while diving a semi-closed rebreather at Cove 2, just the day before we saw the SixGill. I will be returning the mask to the family members of the deceased diver. RIP

Entry Filed under: Puget Sound, SCUBA