Why more White Sharks are pushing north into Canadian waters | Shark Below Zero
NARRATOR: Heading back to shore, the team review the footage from cameras mounted on the bait lines.
MEGAN: Chh chh chh chh chh. Oh, that's such a good one!
HEATHER: So that's when the buoy went down. You on to that, Meg?
GREG: Look at that.
MEGAN: Oh, it really wanted that thing. This is awesome.
GREG: Oh, it tears it up.
NARRATOR: With no claspers visible, the shark is a juvenile female and new to the Atlantic white shark database.
MEGAN: I think we put this one at like nine. Right?
HEATHER: I've, yeah, I think so, too.
MEGAN: A nine or ten-footer, so not a super big one, still a big shark, but not really big for a white shark.
GREG: You think this is typical size you guys are seeing up here?
HEATHER: It seems to be a lot of the juveniles, a lot of the acoustic detections we get, it's, it's in that, you know, let's say 9 to 12-foot range. It's, it's the smaller guys.
GREG: Yeah.
NARRATOR: It's an important clue and different to the pattern Greg and Megan see some 260 miles to the south around Cape Cod.
GREG: We do see juveniles, but a lot of our resident sharks are big males. And those big males may be schoolyard bullies, you know, pushing these smaller animals into other parts of their range, which include, in the summer and the fall, Canadian waters.
NARRATOR: In 2019, a drone operator captured sharks clashing off Cape Cod. Could territorial adult males be pushing smaller white sharks north?
GREG: We also know there are social interactions between these sharks because we see scars. You know, there are bites, there are injuries that are clearly from other sharks. And is that associated with mating? Certainly it could be. But it, on juveniles, it could also be associated with negative interactions between sharks. In other words, "Get the hell out of here. This is my neighborhood."
NARRATOR: Territory may just be part of the puzzle of what's drawing sharks north. Canada's Atlantic waters have some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Sharks in the eight to nine-feet range are youngsters and, for the most part, fish-hunters. The shape of the seabed here, combined with the cold Labrador Current as it mixes with the Gulf Stream, brings nutrients up to the surface. (birds squawking) It makes for the perfect conditions for marine life to flourish in spectacular numbers.
NARRATOR: Canada is also experiencing one of its hottest Augusts on record. Could the mix of so much food and warming waters be part of what draws white sharks north?