10 sharks tagged off Nova Scotia
More luck in Canada as scientists figure out predator’s patterns
The great white shark researchers who tagged three of the apex predators off the Massachusetts coast this summer went on to have a fruitful expedition in Canadian waters.
The OCEARCH scientists were able to sample, tag and release 10 great white sharks in the waters off of Nova Scotia during their recent three-week trip to the region.
One of the sharks they tagged was a massive 12foot, 1,644-pound mature male that they named Scot, and another was a gigantic 13-foot, 1,308-pound mature male that they named Bob. Six of the 10 tagged sharks were juvenile great whites.
OCEARCH returned to Canada for the fourth year in a row to collect data for 24 different science projects, which the researchers say will help “form a complete picture of the ecology, behavior and health of the white shark in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.”
The group has tagged 83 animals overall in its Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study, just 17 away from their goal of 100 tagged and sampled sharks.
OCEARCH has tagged 36 animals in Nova Scotia over the past four years.
“When OCEARCH first came to this region we thought this could be where the mature adults were going to mate, but through our work with hormone levels and semen samples we know this is not happening here,” said OCEARCH Founder and Expedition Leader Chris Fischer.
“The white sharks are coming to this region to bulk up on seals in the summer and fall, before heading south to endure the oncoming winter and go mate,” he said.
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, 187-pound 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, 140pound male juvenile that was tagged off of Cape Cod.
After their time in Massachusetts’ waters, the OCEARCH scientists then went up the coast to Canada.