Hello, Hilton
Great white shark located off the coast of Point Michaud
It’s Shark Week in Cape Breton thanks to a visit from a celebrity fish.
Hilton, a tagged great white shark, was pinged off the coast of Point Michaud on Monday night. He’s travelled from the Gulf of Mexico in the spring to the southern coast of Nova Scotia this summer but has moved farther east from his usual location as peak mating season draws near.
Chris Fischer, founding chairman and expedition leader for Ocearch, the group that tagged Hilton, said it’s the farthest northeast he’s travelled.
“We believe he’s up there for mating. He was up there all last mating season and he’s up there now,” said Fischer, adding that a shark Hilton’s size could travel close to 250 km per day. “When you look at an area for a big, mature shark like Hilton, his mating area could easily extend across the entire Nova Scotia southern coast because they move so much, so easily.
“It’s likely he likes the water temperature a little bit. Perhaps he’s going up there for some additional feeding opportunities. I know there’s seals everywhere along that area. It’s going to be interesting to see what he does. We have had sharks go over to Newfoundland.”
Hilton was tagged in March 2017 in Hilton Head, S.C., which is where he got his name. He’s estimated to be over 20 years old, about four metres long (about 13 feet) and weighs in at about 900 kg, or around 2,000 pounds.
Ocearch is tagging and tracking the animals to document their migratory range and to find out where they mate and give birth.
The team will be in Nova Scotia from Sept. 16 to Oct. 12 to do further research on the sharks.
“The data set around the life history of these white sharks is the fundamental data set to manage the whole system towards abundance,” said Fischer. “These sharks are the balance keepers. We got down to about nine per cent of our large sharks and we didn’t have the data to manage them back.
If we lose the big sharks, we lose the ocean.”
As for any potential beachgoers in Cape Breton, Fischer said it’s best to just use common sense.
“Look at what is going on. Are there a bunch of seals there? Is there fish feeding on bait that the seals are feeding on? You don’t want to swim out in the middle of that. You want
to move on to a different beach. “Look at the ocean before
going in it.”
Hilton has a Twitter account where people can follow his progress: @HiltonTheShark. He has over 43,000 followers.
He gave a shoutout to one of his buddies, @YETItheShark, who’s cruising around near the coast of Nantucket, Mass.
“Well hi there @YETItheShark,” Hilton tweeted. “Was wondering where you’d gone to after we hung out together in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Say hello to all the Cape Cod sharks for me!”