Halifax researchers tag great white shark in Atlantic Canada for first time

HALIFAX — For the first time in Atlantic Canadian waters, scientists have successfully tagged a great white shark.

Dr. Heather Bowlby, an aquatic researcher with Halifax’s Bedford Institute of Oceanography, says the three-metre juvenile male shark was satellite tagged off of southwest Nova Scotia last week.

Bowlby says the tag information will assist in understanding white shark movements off Canada, and help inform protection measures for the endangered species.

She says data collected from the archival tag will not be known for nine months — it will pop off and float to the surface at that time and transmit the information to a satellite.

Bowlby, along with Art Gaetan and Nathan Glenn of Blue Shark Charters, tagged the shark in the water alongside an 11-metre boat, using a slick of ground-up fish and tuna heads to attract the predatory fish.

The news comes as Ocearch, an American group, is in Nova Scotia to begin shark research, hoping to tag some mature females and track them to a birthing site.

Ocearch is best-known in Nova Scotia for tagging Hilton, a celebrity great white shark who regularly reveals his location in a wry and charming Twitter feed that has almost 45,000 followers.

Hilton was off Cape Breton on Saturday.