Richard Stevens has been on 420 dives in his 42 years on earth, but none were as extraordinary as his latest.

Expecting to see half a dozen sharks during his diving trip to the Maldives, Richard and his group were left "mind-blown" when they spent an hour underwater with at least 30 of them.

Richard, an underwater videographer and marine conservationist, arranged the trip for 25 people - some of whom had never seen a shark up close before.

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He told News Shopper: "We were with diving instructors who dive there everyday. When we got back to the surface they were as shocked as we were. It was completely unprecedented.

"I was with my wife and it was just elation for us. It was 60 minutes of unprecedented action right in front of you. Pretty bloody cool!"

Richard described the moment the group returned to the boat.

He said: "Everyone was cheering. It was an oh my god moment. The mood was incredible. It was one of those moments of complete joy.

"I was quite proud. A lot of people were seeing things for the first time and to share that moment with them was great."

Some of the female sharks had fresh bite marks on their rear quarters, indicating that the group had just missed them mating.

"That would have been the million dollar video," Richard laughed.

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He said one of the incredible things was that sharks don't normally spend longer than a couple of minutes with humans because of their equalled fear.

However, for one hour they circled near the group as the amazed onlookers struggled to count how many there were.

The memorable dive happened on day one of the trip (January 22) and Richard and the group refer to it as their "Blue Planet moment".

Dozens of sharks, mainly Grey Reefs and a few silver Tip sharks, can be seen swimming near the group in the video recorded by Richard.