Great white shark spotted off N.S. coast

HALIFAX — A great white shark has been detected near Halifax — the second great white spotted in Nova Scotia in a month — prompting at least some people to stay out of the water.

One Twitter user joked it was “a little too close for comfort,” after a 600-kilogram tagged shark named Hilton signalled it was in Mahone Bay, a tourist town 85 kilometres south of Halifax.

Hilton — tagged by the research group Ocearch in Hilton Head, S.C., in March — signalled he was in Mahone Bay on Sunday.

“Hilton has been travelling north along the coast of southern Nova Scotia for the past week and a half,” the group said on Facebook Wednesday.

In late July, a 300-kilogram great white shark affectionately known as Pumpkin was detected in Nova Scotia’s Minas Basin as she feasted on an abundance of seals.

In November, a 900-kilogram great white named Lydia — who like Hilton has her own Ocearch-managed Twitter account — was among two tracking off Nova Scotia.

Ocearch chairman Chris Fischer has said white sharks could be using Sable Island as a place to mate.

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy says the animal is the largest predatory fish in the world, with a powerful jaw full of serrated teeth and a body that can weigh up to 1,800 kilograms. But, it says the population in the North Atlantic has dropped by 75 per cent in the past 15 years and is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable.

They have been protected from harvesting in U.S. waters since 1991, but the conservancy says still so little is known about where the sharks travel, pup and feed.