An Irish surfer encountered a group of basking sharks off the coast of Co Clare in a once in a lifetime experience.
In this jaw-dropping footage Tom Gillespie can be seen swimming with his friends amongst a large group of the aquatic animals.
Unlike the great white, basking sharks feed off of plankton and are generally harmless to humans.
Tom and his friends were determined to find the large group of sharks after they heard of recent sightings in his area.
Speaking to Breaking News Tom said: "We were aware of some recent sightings in the area and the bay is within 2kms of where we all live so we got up early on and went out on our boards,”
"And there they were…They were quite slow and peaceful, and they just came towards us and cruised past. We just tried to make sure we didn’t look like plankton.
"We just sat or lay there and acted calmly, we were very careful not to touch them, and tried not to disturb them.”
The video has since gone viral and Tom has said that all money raised from the video will be donated both to the Irish Coast Guard and the Irish basking shark project.
Posting on his Instagram he said: "Strange seeing how popular this video got on the internet.
"Glad it was seen as a good news story given all the bad news stories recently.
"It really was an awesome experience as anyone who was lucky enough to do same will agree.
"Check out @baskingirish and @irish.coast.guard.
"Any money i make from this will go straight to those guys and girls as a small gesture of appreciation for all their work."
