- A video captured the moment a basking
shark swam past a research vessel full of amazed students. - Students on the SSV Corwith Cramer were in awe when they saw what they think was a basking shark.
- The video, which was posted to
TikTok on Tuesday, currently has more than 54 million likes.
An incredible TikTok video shows the moment a group of students on a research vessel off the coast of New England, Massachusetts encountered what appears to be a giant basking shark on Tuesday.
The footage was captured by Alex Albrecht, a 20-year-old marine biodiversity student who was sailing as part of a semester program with the Sea Education Association.
The research trip on the SSV Corwith Cramer lasted six weeks and took the crew of mostly students from Florida to Massachusetts.
The video captures the shark swimming in slow circles as people rush to the side of the boat to get a closer look. "Oh my god," some can be heard saying.
Albrecht told The Sun that the video was taken "from high up on the mast, where you can climb to tend to rigging or enjoy the view."
Read more: 'Sea snot' is clogging up Turkey's coasts, suffocating marine life, and devastating fisheries
"I'm so grateful to be able to share such a wonderful creature with so many people, I hope it makes people want to protect and conserve biodiversity in our oceans," the 20-year-old said, according to The Sun.
Watch the incredible footage below:
@.alex.albrecht Sailed six weeks in the atlantic saw this big fucking shark
♬ original sound - Alex Albrecht
The video, which was captioned "Sailed six weeks in the Atlantic saw this big f---ing shark," was liked more than 54 million times on TikTok.
The basking shark is also known as a bone shark or elephant shark, according to Discover Wildlife. It is the second-largest shark in the world after the whale shark and prefers eating plankton over humans. Its jaw can expand up to 3-feet wide.