Shark researchers not back this summer.
Great whites preparing to return to Cape Breton this summer
SYDNEY — When Cape Bretoners return to the beach this summer, they’ll be sharing the waters with some familiar visitors — great white sharks.
Since 2018, Ocearch, a Florida-based research group, has tagged 26 of the apex predators off the coast of Nova Scotia, including several off the coast of Main-a-Dieu in 2019 and 2020, exposing the area as a hotspot for white sharks.
However, expedition leader and founder Chris Fischer says that shouldn’t deter people from splashing around in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We’ve all been swimming with them all of our lives — nothing has changed; we just found out they’re there,” he said. “If you go down to the beach with your family, prepare to go there to enjoy yourself and help your children fall in love with the ocean because it’s two-thirds of our air and all of our water, and it provides one half of the planet’s protein every day. We have to love the ocean, we have to nurture the ocean and we all have to be in love with it.”
ODDS OF ATTACK LOW
Fischer said the odds of a shark encounter are so low that the only way to reduce them is for individuals to take accountability for their own actions by looking at what’s happening in the water then making good decisions.
“The moment you step into the ocean, you are deep into the wild. It is not like a hike where you need to be a couple of miles in to feel deep into the wild. When you step three feet into the ocean, you are deep into the wild,” he said. “If you look out and you see big splashing and birds diving and seals feeding, sharks are going to be on that. Don’t get into a wetsuit, dressing up like a seal and swimming out into the middle of the food chain. Use some common sense. Move to a section of the beach that’s quieter, where all of that is not occurring and enjoy the water.”
VITAL DATA
Two sharks Ocearch tagged and sampled near Scatarie Island and Hay Island have provided vital information that is helping researchers better understand white shark biology, physiology, health and behaviour.
Unama’ki — a huge, 4.3metre, 942-kilogram female — gave strong signs she was pregnant after she was affixed with two satellite tracking tags on Sept. 20, 2019, then made a beeline south, swimming more than 3,000 kilometres to reach the Gulf of Mexico in just five weeks.
“Unama’ki was pinging in quite well. We haven’t heard from her in a while but I expect she’s fine and she’s just been down or her tag got ripped and hopefully we’ll pick her up on an acoustic tag,” said Fischer. “She could be giving birth in this general time period right now.
“It would be really great to hear from her — she could reveal important data.”
Breton was tagged hours into Ocearch’s second trip to Scatarie Island in 2020.
While Unama’ki is providing clues about where white sharks give birth, Breton — a four-metre, 635-kilogram male — is helping the group narrow down their breeding grounds.
“It’s been hugely important when you look at his track. I think it’s helping us confirm our data set about where they mating, which we believe is occurring right after they leave Nova Scotia in the southeastern United States off of North Carolina and South Carolina.”
GUARDING FISH STOCKS
Fischer said rather than fear sharks, people should appreciate the important role they play in the ecosystem by keeping seal populations in check.
“You should be thrilled that these white sharks are returning because they’re going to prevent your seals from wiping out your fish and lobster stocks,” he said. “They are literally guarding your fish stocks from all of your seals so that there’s successful recreational and commercial fishing and our kids will be able to see an ocean full of fish.”
While Ocearch is returning to Nova Scotia this year, they won’t be coming back to Cape Breton, instead concentrating their efforts in the southwest near Canso and Lunenburg.
“We’re hoping to be able to continue on our sample size of white sharks in the region. We have 70 white sharks that we’ve been able to sample and work up in the northwest Atlantic so far — the scientists would like about 100 to validate where they’re mating, birthing, gestating, where the nursery is, and so forth, so we’re going to continue to build on that sample size,” he said, adding that Ocearch is just a couple of years away from cracking what he calls the “white shark puzzle.”
“We’re really close — we’re less than two years away.”
People can track sharks on Ocearch’s website — https:// www.ocearch.org/tracker/.