OCEAN QUEEN
RESEARCHERS CAPTURE AND TAG THEIR LARGEST GREAT WHITE SHARK YET OFF NOVA SCOTIA.
A U. S.- based shark research non-profit has tagged its largest Great White Shark in the Northwest Atlantic and named her after a legendary Mi’kmaq grandmother figure.
Nukumi ( pronounced noo-goo-mee) was tagged on Friday morning near West Ironbound Island off Lunenburg, N.S.
The shark measured more than five metres in length, weighed 1,606 kilograms and is assumed to be over 50 years old.
“She actually is likely a proper grandmother,” Chris Fischer, founding chairman and expedition leader of OCEARCH, told CBC News.
OCEARCH made the find during an expedition along the Northwest Atlantic coast to track the shark population. Researchers have tagged four sharks so far and three of them are pinging their location, which is recorded on Ocearch’s tracking website.
Fischer said finding a shark of Nukumi’s size is “interesting.” He described her as a “proper matriarch” and “queen of the ocean.”
He said she suits her name. Ocearch met with members of the Mi’ kmaq community before the trip and were given a list of names.
The presence of so many predators off Canada is a sign of a “healthy ocean” as the sharks act as guardians of the ecosystem.
“When you look at this particular area where we are right now, the great white are the guardians of all of your fish stocks; they’re preventing the seals from over- foraging and crashing the whole system,” Fischer told CBC.
Several Canadians boating in the Maritime waters or relaxing by the beach have reported an increase in sightings of great white sharks along the coast, with videos of the apex predators popping up along the Nova Scotia coast during the summer. In August, authorities temporarily closed Queensland beach for a couple of days after several beachgoers spotted the trademark shark fin perilously close to the shore.
In 2018 and 2019, Fischer led two expeditions off the Nova Scotia coast to tag and sample sharks, so as to track their movements. The team was able to tag 17 sharks and shared the tracking data on their website and social media, increasing public awareness about the creatures and their prevalence in the Maritimes. Several of the tagged sharks have returned to the Nova Scotia coast this year.
“Now that we know they are here in big numbers, it’s time to drill down and understand exactly how these animals are utilizing the area and how healthy the population is,” Fischer added.