Shark research goes to Nova Scotia
Great white shark researchers who recently tagged three of the apex predators off Massachusetts are now searching the waters off Nova Scotia.
OCEARCH has returned to Canada for the fourth year in a row to collect data for 24 different science projects, which the scientists say will help form a “complete picture of the life and health of the white shark” in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.
“We’ve learned this part of Atlantic Canada is very important to the Northwest Atlantic white shark population as a summer feeding ground,” said OCEARCH Chief Scientist Bob Hueter. “It’s all about the rich food resources there in summer, including fish, seals, and the occasional dead whale.”
Dead whales also sometimes attract sharks in the waters off Cape Cod. Just last month, a shiver of sharks were feasting on a dead humpback whale off Provincetown. Researchers took advantage of the feeding, and tagged five of those sharks.
In August, the OCEARCH shark researchers were able to sample, tag and release three juvenile sharks during their ocean research expedition off Massachusetts. The juvenile white sharks were tagged off of Cape Cod and Nantucket.
The three sharks are: Olympia, a 7-foot, 187pound female juvenile that was tagged off of Monomoy Island; Tuck, an 8-foot, 238pound male juvenile named for the people of Nantucket;
and Santiago, a 6-foot, 140-pound male juvenile that was tagged off of Cape Cod.
Now the OCEARCH scientists have migrated from the Cape to Canada until the end of September.
The organization in the past has sampled, tagged and released juveniles, subadults and adults of both sexes in Canadian waters, including the largest shark of their Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study: Nukumi, who was a whopping 17.5 feet and 3,500 pounds.
Expedition Nova Scotia 2021 aims to increase the study’s sample size in this region, with a focus on expanding the data set for adult and subadult animals, which are no longer juveniles but not full adults yet. OCEARCH’s science team has a target of sampling a total of 100 sharks in the Northwest Atlantic, and they are less than 30 animals away from this goal.
“Nova Scotia has become our favorite place to work in the Northwest Atlantic,” said Chris Fischer, OCEARCH founder and expedition leader. “The people’s commitment to objective science with an ocean first disposition is the most impressive we have seen anywhere in the world.
“We are starting to wrap up our work on this population of sharks, as we now know when, why, and what the sharks are doing in these waters,” he added.
OCEARCH plans to share their research and data with the Canadian government, which can be used to help influence public safety and conservation policies.