A Nanaimo fisherman got the catch and scare of a lifetime when he angled in a juvenile sixgill shark in waters just off the coast of Nanaimo. (submitted photo/Michelle Smithers)

By Alex Rawnsley

NEED A BIGGER BOAT

VIDEO: Couple capture rare encounter with sixgill shark off the coast of Nanaimo

Jul 9, 2021 | 5:30 AM

NANAIMO — A local couple reeled in more than they bargained for during an evening fishing trip off the coast of Entrance Island near Nanaimo.

Roy Ban, his fiancé Michelle Smithers and their infant child were fishing for ling cod on the evening of Tuesday, July 6 when a juvenile bluntnose sixgill shark got snagged on Ban’s hook.

Ban told NanaimoNewsNOW it was a 45-minute battle to bring the shark to the surface from roughly 100 feet below, with his rod routinely bent like a horseshoe.

“I saw it for a glance and it went straight back down, fought it again for a bit. Got it back up, the net was right there and realized that thing wasn’t fitting in the net, not a chance.”

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Ban snipped his line and the shark swam back out after the “once in a lifetime experience.”

The trio immediately packed up and headed home after seeing the shark swim away.

“I said in Jaws, the blonde dies first so get me out of here,” Smithers said.

The encounter is a rare interaction between the deep sea animal and humans, according to expert Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark.

The university veterinarian at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia told NanaimoNewsNOW the shark is a mainstay in the Strait of Georgia, but to see a juvenile one up close is exceedingly special.

“It’s a cannibalistic species and we think the big guys eat the little guys. To see a little juvenile, (which is) pretty much any animal under two metres long, is a rarity.”

The shark is known to stick mainly to coastal areas, but do make ocean trips with habitats in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean.

An ambush predator, the shark is identified and named by having six gills instead of the more typical five and their head features large, glow-in-the-dark eyes.

They’re also extremely adaptive animals, having been observed at depths up to 10,000 feet below sea level.

“They eat everything. Virtually anything that swims in the ocean has been found in the stomach of sixgill and yet they must be very forbearing because I’ve never really heard any diver being injured by one, some people have taken big liberties with them by grabbing their tails and things like that,” Harvey-Clark said.

Despite their resiliency, Harvey-Clark said some areas of the shark can be cut with a butter knife, making hooks and fishing gear especially dangerous.

Fishers who do catch the animal should cut the line as close as possible and not attempt to retrieve the hook since any damage to the shark’s jaw would impede its ability to eat and ultimately kill the animal.

Little is known about how long they live, although experts compare them to the Greenland shark, which can live between 250 and 450 years-old.

“This is the swimming equivalent of a 1000 year old Douglas Fir. You should be respecting that animal for nothing else than the reasons of it likely being very long lived, slow to reproduce and hard to replace if we do wipe them out.”

Sixgills also offer little as a food source for humans, with Harvey-Clark mentioning the animal is loaded with toxic levels of mercury from eating other fish in the food chain.

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alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley