Gigantic Shark Spotted In Atlantic Sparks 'Megalodon' Fears For Some

Of course, it's not a megalodon, they went extinct millions of years ago, but that doesn't stop people having their own take on the matter.

It's most likely a basking shark, but it's still huge.

Sail around in the Atlantic for any decent amount of time, and you're likely to encounter some sea creature or other.

Basking sharks - as this appears to be - are just one of the animals that you could chance upon.

Albrecht shared the video on TikTok, captioning it: "Sailed six weeks in the Atlantic saw this big f***ing shark"

Well, at least that's an accurate description of it.

Basking sharks are amongst the biggest fish in the ocean, right up there with the likes of the whale shark, which is the biggest.

Since Alex shared the video, it has been liked more than 4.8 million times, with 51.9k chiming in to offer their thoughts on what was happening down in the ocean.

Let's start with the sensible stuff. One person said simply: "It's a basking shark".

Yes, it most likely is.

Another said: "Basking sharks are harmless to humans but they weigh a s*** ton."

Again, correct. They aren't interested in humans, given that they tend to eat microscopic creatures and have hundreds of tiny teeth, as opposed to the huge teeth we might expect from other sharks like the great white.

Now, onto the comments that are slightly less in touch with reality.

One person said: "Is that megalodon?"

Nope, it most certainly isn't.

That's because the megalodon lived between 23 and 3.6 million years ago before going extinct.

They were also absolutely massive. Like, way bigger than this fish.

Megalodons could measure up to 20.3 metres and had an unbelievably powerful bite.

Again, much like it would seem this shark doesn't.

The megalodon could even be responsible for why the biggest animals on earth - baleen whales such as the blue whale - are so massive, because they started to get a whole heap bigger after the megalodon went extinct.