Daring diver HUGS an 11-foot great white shark while swimming off the coast of South Carolina

Stunning video footage captured the moment a diver plays alongside a great white shark and even appears to embrace the 11-foot beast.

Fearless wildlife photographer Taylor Horton was involved in a shark tagging expedition just off the coast of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

One shot shows him holding a marking instrument in one hand while wrapping his other arm around the dangerous fish.

Viewers were horrified by the footage, with one Facebook user writing, “This makes my heart skip a beat just looking at it.”

“Fearless wildlife photographer Taylor Horton calmly hugs a great white shark in stunning video footage

Shark tagging is a research method that involves attaching specially created tags to a shark’s dorsal fin to provide information about its migration patterns.

The mission was organized by Outcast Sport Fishing, which is run by Chip Michalove, 46.

Horton and Michalove worked together to bait the shark and were able to tame it long enough to tag it.

“He was quite teased when we hooked him. It meant business,’ said Michalove. “It was there to feed and take advantage of the situation.

“But as soon as the sharks get close to the boat, they lose all aggression – they’re not looking for food, they’re just looking for escape.

“I’m more concerned that there will be another one than this one. It was very easy to work with her.”

Of his friend, he added, ‘He’s fearless, but once you hang out with sharks a lot, you learn about their personality and behavior – you learn what they’re going to do before they even know what they’re going to do.’

Michalove, who has been a charter fisherman for 25 years, claims he has caught over a hundred great white sharks off the coast of South Carolina, as well as thousands of tiger sharks, bulls and hammerheads.

Outcast Sport Fishing often shares stunning images of fishermen playing with sharks on its Facebook page

On the Outcast Sport Fishing site, you’ll often see daredevil expedition members playing with sharks

But he took on the additional role of tagging great white sharks seven years ago when a team of scientists asked him for his trapping expertise to tag and track their movements.

He and his team attract the sharks with baited fishing rods, hook them in, and drag them to their boat to attach the satellite tags before releasing them.

“It seems really dangerous, but it’s like taking a lion and hitting it with a tranquilizer dart,” Michalove said.

“Once that animal isn’t in a condition to feed it, it’s just a regular fish.

“There was no immediate danger. If this shark had a different personality or was really cranky and wired, I wouldn’t have let it happen [Taylor] to get into the water.

“You have to stay away from the corners of their mouths because they’ll snap at you in anger, but they don’t want to eat anymore.”

But Facebook users were still unsettled by the footage.

One wrote under the video: “My heart beats louder than his I think! What an amazing job! Someone had nerves of steel for this.”

Another said: “I held my breath the whole time I saw this! You are rock stars.”

Chip Michalove, 46, pictured, was on the shark tagging expedition with Horton when the pair helped researchers track shark migration patterns

Outcast Sport Fishing partnered with a team of Cape Cod scientists for the tagging expedition.

Michalove said: “The least we know about great white sharks is where they breed or where they deposit their pups. We know so little about them.”