Last year, a record number of great white sharks washed up on Canadian beaches. But while that may sound like bad news—the species is endangered—it’s actually a good sign, experts say.
4 sharks stranded in 10 months
Over the past two decades, only one or two great white sharks have been reported stranding each year. But since October, four bodies have been found off the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island on Canada’s Atlantic coast. Three of them were juveniles and one was an adult.
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The last grounding dates back to August 7th. It was the swimmer who reported the animal – a 2.7-meter-long juvenile, who was stranded on Greenwich Beach, along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The animal was recovered for necropsy, but showed no signs of trauma.
A rise in population
This latest string of sightings is likely a result of people reporting stranded sharks far too often. But according to Tonya Wimmer, executive director of MARS, a Canadian nonprofit, this rise in delinquency could be a sign of a growing local population of tall, white people. “We are all crossing our fingersshe told Live Science. There is a general feeling that there seem to be more sharks.”
Moreover, a few hundred kilometers to the south, Americans are making the same observation around Cape Cod, Massachusetts: The great whites are back.
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So this could be good news for this species, as white sharks of the northwest Atlantic are listed as endangered under Canadian federal law. Its population is said to have declined by more than 70% since the 1960s, due to bycatch.
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