Friday, September 2, 2011

Nova Scotian Man speaks of great white shark of up to 25-feet in Bay of Fundy

By Sean LaLonde


Canada's The Chronicle Herald wrote that a "scary huge" great white shark was spotted by a ship of whale watchers on Aug 17, 2011 in the Bay of Fundy off Brier Island, Nova Scotia. According to the report, Fulton Lavender, a Nova Scotia Bird Society naturalist claims that the shark was over 25 in his personal opinion.

At first, Fulton thought the shark to be a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), which can typically reach lengths of over 25. However, after seeing pictures of the shark taken by a visitor on board the whale-watching ship, Fulton asserted it was "definitely a great white shark." Others on board the boat said that the shark had a white bottom. While basking sharks do not characteristically have a white bottom, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) do. Fulton also added that the photos taken showed facial patterns and a dorsal fin more characteristic of a white shark.

The visitor who took the pictures of the animal guaranteed to provide Brier Island officials with a copy of a picture of the animal but has still to do so.

Adult white sharks are often in the range of 13-17 in length, but reports of great whites reaching 20, though somewhat rare, are not unheard of. A white shark surpassing 25 in length would be way outside the normal size range of the species.

Reid Gillis, a captain for one of the whale watching boats claims he saw the animal jump out of the water 3 times, but he couldn't identify the species as a white shark. The shark was also blamed by a number of the whale watchers for attacking a humpback whale who was seen with "crescent-shaped" wounds. Gillis who saw the injuries on the whale noted that he did not see the shark attack the humpback and couldn't resolve whether the injuries were the result of bite marks.

Canadian shark analyst, Steven Campana, announced it would be highly bizarre for a white shark to attack a healthy adult whale.




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