It's easy to marvel at the rapid advance of CGI monsters in movies and wonder exactly how far off Industrial Light & Magic or WETA is from achieving utter realism. Then you look at one of nature's deep-sea monsters and realize just how far Hollywood has to go:
Dr. Eric Vetter of Hawaii Pacific University was diving off the coast of Moloka'i in a deep-sea submersible when this six-gill shark, estimated at 17 to 18 feet in length, nonchalantly swam into the camera's view, dwarfing everything around it. It lumbers around for a few minutes on camera, moving as you might expect it to, but leaves in a quick burst of speed that is a kick to behold.
Vetter and his co-scientists in the submarine provide excellent commentary, spiked with exclamations of third-grade profanity like "oh crap!" and "oh my God!" This is pretty much like seeing a reunited Mott the Hoople for them, so they're excited, and rightly so.
If I were Vetter, I'd start writing the screenplay for the next great monster movie, about a rogue six gill shark that picks off a band of randy teens at the bottom of the ocean. He's already going to have to compete with mine, but that's OK — we can do a Deep Impact/Armageddon thing.
Now: How do I get those teens 3,000 feet underwater? Ah — a game of truth or dare gone horribly wrong! Perfect!
Start printing my money, Hollywood!
Rare massive 6-gill shark sighting at 3300 ft. depth!! (YouTube)
Via Deep Sea News
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