Great white shark sightings becoming more common, say Mi'kmaw fishermen

When fisherman Matthew James Basque-Augustine saw a sharp-looking fin caught in his lines, he was sure it belonged to a great white shark. 

"There's a lot of fear because I wasn't in a very big boat," he said. 

It happened about 10 years ago — just off of the cape of Richibuctou, about 65 kilometres north of Moncton — and shark sightings were almost non-existent there at the time. 

Basque-Augustine said people would laugh when he told them about the shark, but recently, more and more fishermen have been catching lemon sharks and other shark species in their lines. 

""[They] believe it now, but at the time no one would believe me," he said.

"It's becoming more real that there [are] great whites out there." 

White shark sightings are on the rise in the Maritimes and have been driving interest in the mysterious predators. 

A new documentary from CBC's The Nature of Things, called Jawsome: Canada's Great White Sharks, explores the history of great white sharks in the Atlantic and whether they've become more common there.

The white sharks seen on the East Coast are part of a population that stretches from South America all the way to Newfoundland. They visit Canada seasonally in the late summer and early fall. 

"You [can] see them a lot more than before," said Michael Basque, a fisherman from Potlotek First Nation, roughly 250 kilometres northeast of Halifax.

He said up until about 10 years ago, it was rare to see a shark.

Atlantic great white sharks are considered endangered in Canada, and they are listed as a vulnerable species around the world. As a population, they're difficult to study and monitor because they are mostly solitary and can migrate thousands of kilometres. 

Basque said unlike dolphins and whales, which come up to his boat and show off, sharks are a lot less curious. 

"Sharks, you get a glimpse of them, and they're usually gone," he said.