HEART-STOPPING footage shows a man diving into the ocean to swim with a basking shark before panicking as he realises it could be a great white.
The clip has sparked fear and amazement after being shared online over the weekend.
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The video shows the fin of a large fish moving above the surface of the water as a man stands on a boat watching before diving in.
The monster fish is then seen thrashing before ducking under water, and the man is heard saying: “That was a bad idea.”
He then turns and tries to swim back as someone behind the camera shouts: “Get back on the boat!”
The cameraman attempts to follow the shark with the camera as the man in the water is heard shouting: “Ah! I touched it! Oh f**k.”
The shark is seen circling round and passing close to the boat below the surface of the water.
The cameraman is heard saying, “Dude that’s a Gr…”, before appearing to think better of finishing the sentence.
Instead he says: “That’s not a basking shark dude.”
His friend can then be heard yelping as he climbs back onto the boat.
Footage of the incident, which occurred in an unknown location, has received more than 43,000 up votes on Reddit since being posted on Saturday.
Some users said that basking and great white sharks are often confused for one another, and that the huge fish in the footage could in fact be a basking shark.
Basking sharks are one of the largest species of shark but move slowly and are generally tolerant of divers, while great whites can be much more aggressive and dangerous to humans.
Other users said that diving in might not have been the best idea regardless of the species of shark.
“Who sees a shark fin and jumps into the water?” wrote one user.
“Holy c**p that made me anxious,” said another.
“That is my worst fear, packaged into a video. Granted I would have never left the boat to begin with…”
A third wrote: “This is honestly the scariest video I think I’ve ever seen.”
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