Watch: Researchers swim alongside basking shark off Cork coast

Two researchers were able to go snorkelling alongside a 6m female basking shark.

On the final day of the week-long research trip, Dr Nick Payne and Haley Dolton were able to observe one of the females they had tagged up close.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have tagged a number of basking sharks currently swimming in West Cork.

In an effort to learn more about the anatomy and physiology of the second-largest shark species, Dr Nick Payne and Haley Dolton spent a week in Cork studying them as they swim around the coast feeding on plankton.