Great white shark sightings becoming more common in Atlantic Canada
CBC
There are more great white sharks swimming in Atlantic Canada waters in recent years, and that's good news.
In the latter decades of the 20th century, great white shark populations in the region were decimated when they were caught as by-catch, that is, accidentally captured while fishing for something else. The shark became a protected species in the mid-1990s.
"The ocean has been out of balance. We destroyed our shark population and overfished other things," said Bob Hueter, chief scientist with Ocearch in Sarasota, Fla.
"Now we're starting to bring things back."
As top predators, sharks help control populations of mid-level predators such as seals.
Chris Harvey-Clark, a Halifax-based shark researcher, diver and veterinarian at Dalhousie University, has been seeing the results of conservation efforts.
"White sharks are not difficult to find at all," said Harvey-Clark, who has helped film more than 40 underwater documentaries.
In November he went out on an expedition off Nova Scotia's South Shore, using drones for spotting, and diving cages to capture some underwater shark pictures.
"[We] found it actually incredibly easy to image large numbers of sharks. In one three-day period we got 15 different sharks," said Harvey-Clark.
Harvey-Clark will be using the pictures he took to develop a tool for identifying individual sharks. Individual sharks can be identified by unique markings on their pelvic fins. Scarring and other markings can also aid in identification.
And Harvey-Clark isn't the only one spotting sharks off the South Shore. Earlier this month a solo diver saw one in St. Margaret's Bay.
"The shark came in from deep water, had a look at her, she threw up her arms, and it turned around and hightailed it out of there," he said.
There was another encounter earlier this week, this time involving a charter boat with a dozen divers in the water.
"They had several encounters with, likely, the same shark," said Harvey-Clark.
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