The reason a great white shark became stranded and ultimately died on a Nova Scotia beach remains unknown, as the animal washed away before a necropsy could be conducted.
But prior to its untimely death, the shark was spotted swimming right up to boats in a local wharf Thursday afternoon– giving witnesses a sight they say they’ll never forget.
“It was just astonishing to be six feet away from it … I was speechless,” said Shauna Madden.
Madden was walking with her dogs on the beach near North Bay Wharf in Ingonish, N.S. when she spotted a fin in the water.
She initially thought it was a basking shark, which lives on a plankton diet and is not aggressive or dangerous to humans.
But after chatting with some local fishermen who were also watching the animal, it dawned on them they were in the presence of a great white shark.
“It came right up to the dock and you could have reached out and touched it,” she recalled
“To actually see it come right up to the dock and swim right in front of you — it was just the most amazing thing I ever seen.”
Madden happens to be a pet photographer and had her work camera handy, so she snapped as many photos as she could of the shark as it circled the small bay for over an hour.
At first, the small group that had gathered to watch the shark thought it was chasing some fish. However, they began to suspect something was wrong.
“We all noticed the way it was swimming around the bay and it seemed to be rolling a bit and just swimming a little erratic,” she said.
“But I noticed when I zoomed in on some of my pictures, I noticed the dorsal fin seems to be deformed in some way. It almost looks like there’s two of them.”
Tonya Wimmer, the executive director of Marine Animal Response Society — a volunteer group that responds to animal strandings and investigates animal deaths — said they received multiple calls about the stranded shark.
It later washed up about 10 kilometers away on Broad Cove Beach in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and despite the efforts of people there, it died.
Wimmer said the group was coordinating with Parks Canada to go assess the animal and had planned to have a team there Friday morning, but by daybreak, the shark’s body had washed away.
“We’ve put out word to various folks who have already reported it to us from that local area. And we know that Parks Canada and Fisheries and Oceans are also keeping their ears open and asking people to report it,” said Wimmer.
“So hopefully, depending on the weather, and we’re supposed to get an interesting storm, so hopefully it just reappears on shore somewhere nearby.”
Wimmer said they’re keen to find out why the animal died, because it’s an endangered species and it was spotted in a “bit of an odd location” so close to shore.
At an estimated four-meters long, it would have probably been an adult white shark.
She said the shark’s dorsal appeared to be “flopped over,” which is abnormal. However, without a proper necropsy, it’s unclear whether the animal was injured or sick.
“It is a bit odd, but whether it’s something to be really concerned with or whether it’s caused by something specific, we won’t know until we get a good look at it,” said Wimmer.
For Madden, she said the encounter with a great white is something she’ll never forget. As an avid beachgoer, she said she will also be a bit more cautious.
“I’m totally a beach person, ocean person, and spend a lot of time at the beach. I’ve never seen a shark before,” she said.
“I don’t want to see any more … but it was incredible to see.”
Maritime Animal Response Society is asking anyone who spots the remains of the shark to call their hotline at 1-866-567-6277 so they can perform a necropsy.
Comments