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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Justin Vallejo

Massive shark circling Atlantic tourist ship becomes TikTok star in viral video

Photograph: TikTok @alex.albrecht

Jaws dropped in the Atlantic ocean when a giant shark stalked a boat full of tourists, who screamed "oh my God" and "holy fu*k" at the sight of the terrifying sea creature.

Video of the shark shared to TikTok has been seen 38.5 million times since it was posted by Alex Albrecht on Tuesday.

“Sailed six weeks in the Atlantic saw this big f–king shark,” he captioned the video.

While commenters compared the gigantic shark to the "megalodon", famous for its massive prehistoric jaw and middling Jason Statham films, others identified the Cetorhiniade as a basking shark.

Also known as a bone shark or elephant shark, the basking shark is second to only the whale shark in size and likewise prefers eating plankton rather than boatloads of screaming humans.

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Passengers on the cruise ship said byThe Sun to be full of tourists can be heard in the video shouting "Woah!" as the 17-foot monster circles near the water’s surface around the boat.

Viewers compared it to the 59-foot "Meg", which lived 23 million years ago, with one saying they had anxiety watching the passengers stand so close to the boat’s edge.

“I’m just saying no one can say that the megalodon don’t exist when we have only explored 5% of the ocean,” said another user.

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