Incredible footage shows a group of 20ft basking sharks circling a kayaker off Irish coast last week.
The jaw dropping aerial video footage shows the stunning moment a lone kayaker paddles off the coast of West Cork as the huge sharks circled in the waters below, CorkBeo.ie reports.
The clip of kayaker Paul Cleary being circled by the sharks off Red Strand was captured by Into The Wild Ireland and posted to their Twitter page.
Captioning the video, they said: "These are the second largest fish on the planet,
"Bigger shark here is 20ft long,"
The Twitter account follows the adventures of a Cork photographer as he captures wildlife in the Rebel County.
The friendly giants are not dangerous thankfully and mainly feed off plankton off the Irish coasts between the months of April and August.
Sighting hotspots for the sharks include Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Clare, Sligo and Donegal.
The species have been known to circle groups of snorklers and divers calmly with no predatory desire to pounce on the much smaller humans they find in their habitat.
The species have been described as "gentle giants" by the Irish Basking Shark Project who have asked members of the public to keep their distance when boating, swimming or kayaking to avoid disrupting the animals.
You can follow more from Into The Wild Ireland on Twitter.
