A boat crew has an incredible up-close encounter with a basking shark off the coast of Northern Ireland. <br /><br />The shark opens its cavernous mouth to feed as it approaches the vessel.<br /><br />"My goodness," one of the crew members exclaims as it starts to bump the boat. "Can we keep him?" says another. <br /><br />The basking shark is the second-largest living shark, after the whale shark, and one of only three filter-feeding sharks (they eat plankton rather than being an active predator). <br /><br />Peak basking shark season in the British Isles lasts June-September. This particular footage was shot in 2015.
