A boat crew has an incredible up-close encounter with a basking shark off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The shark opens its cavernous mouth to feed as it approaches the vessel.

"My goodness," one of the crew members exclaims as it starts to bump the boat. "Can we keep him?" says another.

The basking shark is the second-largest living shark, after the whale shark, and one of only three filter-feeding sharks (they eat plankton rather than being an active predator).

Peak basking shark season in the British Isles lasts June-September. This particular footage was shot in 2015.

This was filmed by my Dad who works on boats out at sea, this was filmed just off shore from Portrush, N. Ireland in 2015 not far from a group of small islands called the Skerries. My dad and his crew encountered this beautiful basking shark, it actually came so close it rubbed against their boat which made for a great video clip.