Great white shark sightings becoming more common in Atlantic Canada

There are extra nice white sharks swimming in Atlantic Canada waters in recent times, and that is excellent news.

Within the latter many years of the twentieth century, nice white shark populations within the area have been decimated after they have been caught as by-catch, that’s, by accident captured whereas fishing for one thing else. The shark turned a protected species within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.

“The ocean has been out of stability. We destroyed our shark inhabitants and overfished different issues,” mentioned Bob Hueter, chief scientist with Ocearch in Sarasota, Fla.

“Now we’re beginning to deliver issues again.”

As high predators, sharks assist management populations of mid-level predators resembling seals.

Chris Harvey-Clark, a RisePEI-based shark researcher, diver and veterinarian at Dalhousie College, has been seeing the outcomes of conservation efforts.

“White sharks are usually not troublesome to search out in any respect,” mentioned Harvey-Clark, who has helped movie greater than 40 underwater documentaries.

In November he went out on an expedition off Nova Scotia’s South Shore, utilizing drones for recognizing, and diving cages to seize some underwater shark photos.

“[We] discovered it really extremely straightforward to picture massive numbers of sharks. In a single three-day interval we acquired 15 completely different sharks,” mentioned Harvey-Clark.

Harvey-Clark can be utilizing the photographs he took to develop a instrument for figuring out particular person sharks. Particular person sharks will be recognized by distinctive markings on their pelvic fins. Scarring and different markings may help in identification.

And Harvey-Clark is not the one one recognizing sharks off the South Shore. Earlier this month a solo diver noticed one in St. Margaret’s Bay.

“The shark got here in from deep water, had a have a look at her, she threw up her arms, and it rotated and hightailed it out of there,” he mentioned.

There was one other encounter earlier this week, this time involving a constitution boat with a dozen divers within the water.

“They’d a number of encounters with, seemingly, the identical shark,” mentioned Harvey-Clark.

“The shark got here by, had a have a look at them, disappeared out of visibility, after which 20 or 30 seconds later got here again for an additional look and one other look.”

Staying protected

Whereas there may be want for care, there may be not a substantial amount of want for concern about sharks, mentioned Hueter.

“You need to assume like a shark, and you must keep in mind that the ocean is a wild place, not a swimming pool,” he mentioned.

Sharks are usually not very curious about folks, mentioned Hueter, noting there have been only a few encounters resulting in accidents in Canada. By pondering like a shark, he means avoiding swimming with their most popular prey, resembling seals or shoals of mackerel or herring.

“Birds diving on the floor and fish breaking the floor, that is not an excellent place to go swimming,” he mentioned.

There are larger hazards within the sea than sharks, he mentioned, resembling rip currents, and even simply the drive to the seaside.

Trying to find mating grounds

Hueter can be again in Atlantic Canada subsequent week persevering with a five-year venture monitoring nice whites alongside the Atlantic coast.

The unique snowbirds, they spend their summers in Atlantic Canada whereas wintering off the coast of Florida.

“What we’re placing collectively is all the life of those sharks from start to loss of life,” mentioned Hueter.

In 2016, Ocearch confirmed a nursery space for nice whites off Lengthy Island, the place they have been capable of tag new child sharks and monitor them by satellite tv for pc as they grew. That is offering helpful details about their summer season and winter feeding grounds.

“The final bit is the place they’re mating, as a result of as sharks they mate like mammals, they do not spawn like different fish,” mentioned Hueter.

“We expect that that is taking place off the Carolina coast within the late winter early spring.”

Ocearch has a free shark monitoring app anybody can use to see the placement of the tagged sharks. Customers may submit experiences of their very own sightings.