People will be asked not to swim alone or near seals, and avoid swimming at dawn, dusk and at night—when the great whites generally feed. Photo ©Odua Images/courtesy Bigstockphoto.com
With growing evidence of great white sharks reoccupying territories off the Canadian east coast, plans are afoot in Nova Scotia to install warning signs informing beachgoers about risks and provide safety tips.
Speaking to The Canadian Press, Fred Whoriskey, director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., said great white shark populations fell across North America by as much as 80 per cent as fishing increased in the 1970s and 1980s. But due to conservation efforts and increased food supply in the form of grey seals, the fish are growing in numbers across the Northwest Atlantic.
Not only have sightings been more frequent, but there were two reported attacks off the Nova Scotian coast—one which injured a swimmer and another which killed a dog—in recent years. The U.S. also witnessed two fatal attacks in the past few years.
This is why about a dozen public beaches in Nova Scotia will soon have warning signs. Whoriskey said the signs will not feature images of the sharks but will instead have QR codes, following which beachgoers can download detailed information. “It’s good to inform yourself (about the risks), in the same way we inform ourselves about traffic safety,” he told The Canadian Press. “Getting this information out to minimize conflicts between humans and wildlife is always a good thing.”
People will be asked not to swim alone or near seals, and avoid swimming at dawn, dusk and at night—when the great whites generally feed.
The signs will be put up in coordination with the non-profit Lifesaving Society of Nova Scotia. It oversees the lifeguards who supervise about 20 beaches during the summer.
The last time a fatality was reported in Canadian waters due to a shark attack was July 1953, according to the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory. A man aboard a lobster boat was drowned when a when a shark rammed the vessel, causing it to capsize.
