Great White washes up on pei beach

[tillylamp 1,957]

great white washed up on pei beach, 4 metres long and 2000lb in weight....                                                                                                                                                                                             

  Great white shark found on P.E.I. beach being studied to determine cause of death                                                                                                                                                                             

Researchers are studying a great white shark found along Prince Edward Island’s North Shore to try and figure out how the large marine animal died. 

The four-metre-long, adult male shark was first discovered Oct. 30 by passers-by, stranded in shallow waters on a beach near Stanhope in P.E.I. National Park. 

 

By the time Parks Canada ecologists found it again the next morning, the 2,000-pound creature was dead on a sandbar near Tracadie. 

A team managed to tow the great white to a nearby wharf, then hoisted it onto a trailer to haul it to the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown. 

 

'I think a lot of people assumed it was some kind of decoration,' says Dave McRuer, a wildlife veterinarian for Parks Canada, about other drivers seeing the great white being hauled in an open trailer from the North Shore into Charlottetown. (Dave McRuer)

“It took us at least a half an hour, 40 minutes to get it to shore, probably just as long to get it up on the trailer,” Dr. Dave McRuer, a wildlife veterinarian for Parks Canada, said of the process.

“Because it was pretty much on Halloween, I think a lot of people assumed it was some kind of decoration…. You don’t see that every day.”

 

Related video: First ever: whale shark with deformity spotted surviving in the Gulf of Mexico (KameraOne Canada)

 

 

Current Time 0:08

/

Duration 0:35

 

 

 

 

 

KameraOne Canada

First ever: whale shark with deformity spotted surviving in the Gulf of Mexico

0

 

View on Watch

More videos

• 

  CBCAdvocates sound the alarm after another whale found dead off Vancouver Island coast

  1:38
• 

  Back 2 Basics AdventuresShark Encounter While Spearfishing

  14:04
• 

  RumbleScuba diver has close call with whale shark cruising right at him

  0:59

 

Great white sharks are common in Atlantic waters, but strandings and deaths around P.E.I. are not. 

Laura Bourque, a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at the vet college, said the last time a great white washed up on Island shores was two years ago. 

Bourque performed a necropsy on the shark once it arrived at the AVC. 

 

Great white sharks are considered to be an endangered species in Canada, so trying to determine the cause of death through the AVC's necropsy will be important. (Laura Bourque)

“He had just had a very large meal of grey seal and harbour porpoise, so he was eating and doing quite well right up until he died,” she said. 

“We didn’t see any indication that there might have been trauma or some other potential human-caused issue in his death.”

Great white sharks are considered to be an endangered species in Canada, so trying to determine the cause of death will be important. 

 

Bourque said not much is known about many white shark diseases and infections — and thus, tests for some conditions don’t even exist yet.  

“It’s always possible that we might not find anything, and that’s always very frustrating,” she said. “But if we do find something interesting, inflammatory or infectious, that could take quite a few months before we can get that sorted out.” 

Great white populations rebounding

While an as-yet unexplained death of a great white is disappointing for researchers, it could also mean a sign of hope for their Atlantic population. 

Neil Hammerschlag, executive director of the Shark Research Foundation, said great white sharks are visiting these waters more frequently — most likely a result of rebounding numbers and warming Atlantic waters. 

 

Neil Hammerschlag, executive director of the Shark Research Foundation, says the shark found on P.E.I. was first spotted and tagged off of Cape Cod around 10 years ago. (Dave McRuer)

“Seeing sharks, even though it might scare some people, it’s a sign of a healthy ecosystem,” he said. 

“To know these animals are in the waters of Atlantic Canada is kind of special. Not many places in the world can say they have great whites swimming around.” 

Hammerschlag said the shark found on P.E.I. was first spotted and tagged off of Cape Cod around 10 years ago. 

 

While the animal’s death is concerning, he said Islanders shouldn’t be worried about great whites venturing closer to the province’s beaches. 

“People actually have more to fear for sharks than of sharks because shark populations globally are declining and many of them are threatened with extinction,” Hammerschlag said. 

“We have a lot of sharks in our waters, and I feel like we should kind of embrace that

      

[mackem 30,466]

4 hours ago, tillylamp said:

great white washed up on pei beach, 4 metres long and 2000lb in weight....                                                                                                                                                                                             

  Great white shark found on P.E.I. beach being studied to determine cause of death                                                                                                                                                                             

Researchers are studying a great white shark found along Prince Edward Island’s North Shore to try and figure out how the large marine animal died. 

The four-metre-long, adult male shark was first discovered Oct. 30 by passers-by, stranded in shallow waters on a beach near Stanhope in P.E.I. National Park. 

 

By the time Parks Canada ecologists found it again the next morning, the 2,000-pound creature was dead on a sandbar near Tracadie. 

A team managed to tow the great white to a nearby wharf, then hoisted it onto a trailer to haul it to the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown. 

 

'I think a lot of people assumed it was some kind of decoration,' says Dave McRuer, a wildlife veterinarian for Parks Canada, about other drivers seeing the great white being hauled in an open trailer from the North Shore into Charlottetown. (Dave McRuer)

“It took us at least a half an hour, 40 minutes to get it to shore, probably just as long to get it up on the trailer,” Dr. Dave McRuer, a wildlife veterinarian for Parks Canada, said of the process.

“Because it was pretty much on Halloween, I think a lot of people assumed it was some kind of decoration…. You don’t see that every day.”

 

Related video: First ever: whale shark with deformity spotted surviving in the Gulf of Mexico (KameraOne Canada)

 

 

Current Time 0:08

/

Duration 0:35

 

 

 

 

 

KameraOne Canada

First ever: whale shark with deformity spotted surviving in the Gulf of Mexico

0

 

View on Watch

More videos

• 

  CBCAdvocates sound the alarm after another whale found dead off Vancouver Island coast

  1:38
• 

  Back 2 Basics AdventuresShark Encounter While Spearfishing

  14:04
• 

  RumbleScuba diver has close call with whale shark cruising right at him

  0:59

 

Great white sharks are common in Atlantic waters, but strandings and deaths around P.E.I. are not. 

Laura Bourque, a wildlife pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at the vet college, said the last time a great white washed up on Island shores was two years ago. 

Bourque performed a necropsy on the shark once it arrived at the AVC. 

 

Great white sharks are considered to be an endangered species in Canada, so trying to determine the cause of death through the AVC's necropsy will be important. (Laura Bourque)

“He had just had a very large meal of grey seal and harbour porpoise, so he was eating and doing quite well right up until he died,” she said. 

“We didn’t see any indication that there might have been trauma or some other potential human-caused issue in his death.”

Great white sharks are considered to be an endangered species in Canada, so trying to determine the cause of death will be important. 

 

Bourque said not much is known about many white shark diseases and infections — and thus, tests for some conditions don’t even exist yet.  

“It’s always possible that we might not find anything, and that’s always very frustrating,” she said. “But if we do find something interesting, inflammatory or infectious, that could take quite a few months before we can get that sorted out.” 

Great white populations rebounding

While an as-yet unexplained death of a great white is disappointing for researchers, it could also mean a sign of hope for their Atlantic population. 

Neil Hammerschlag, executive director of the Shark Research Foundation, said great white sharks are visiting these waters more frequently — most likely a result of rebounding numbers and warming Atlantic waters. 

 

Neil Hammerschlag, executive director of the Shark Research Foundation, says the shark found on P.E.I. was first spotted and tagged off of Cape Cod around 10 years ago. (Dave McRuer)

“Seeing sharks, even though it might scare some people, it’s a sign of a healthy ecosystem,” he said. 

“To know these animals are in the waters of Atlantic Canada is kind of special. Not many places in the world can say they have great whites swimming around.” 

Hammerschlag said the shark found on P.E.I. was first spotted and tagged off of Cape Cod around 10 years ago. 

 

While the animal’s death is concerning, he said Islanders shouldn’t be worried about great whites venturing closer to the province’s beaches. 

“People actually have more to fear for sharks than of sharks because shark populations globally are declining and many of them are threatened with extinction,” Hammerschlag said. 

“We have a lot of sharks in our waters, and I feel like we should kind of embrace that

      

There was a 14 footer tracked off the coast of NL last month tilly.

[Aussie Whip 4,364]

Been a few Great White attacks here recently and my mates wonder why I don't surf anymore, lol.

Edited Friday at 03:54 by Aussie Whip

[tillylamp 1,957]

10 hours ago, mackem said:

There was a 14 footer tracked off the coast of NL last month tilly.

there all around this area Mack, 14 foot is a decent sized shark, my mates brother has a lobster boat here, he`s pulled the teeth from a great white out of the lobster pot buoy, that`s happened a few times now, plus that was some years back now, there are more here than you think i watched a program on it, as the waters are warming up they are moving further up from Florida waters, the experts were saying the coast line from mane right up through to cape Bretton then on to Pei are the perfect hunting coastlines for great whites, easy pray for them, through the tagging program they did tell you the amount that were here, i can`t remember the exact number, but it was in the hundreds, interesting.....

[mackem 30,466]

1 minute ago, tillylamp said:

there all around this area Mack, 14 foot is a decent sized shark, my mates brother has a lobster boat here, he`s pulled the teeth from a great white out of the lobster pot buoy, that`s happened a few times now, plus that was some years back now, there are more here than you think i watched a program on it, as the waters are warming up they are moving further up from Florida waters, the experts were saying the coast line from mane right up through to cape Bretton then on to Pei are the perfect hunting coastlines for great whites, easy pray for them, through the tagging program they did tell you the amount that were here, i can`t remember the exact number, but it was in the hundreds, interesting.....

I think I saw the same program Tilly,I was actually surprised at the numbers off NL,I wasn’t even aware Canada had great whites.

[tillylamp 1,957]

1 hour ago, mackem said:

I think I saw the same program Tilly,I was actually surprised at the numbers off NL,I wasn’t even aware Canada had great whites.

me neither, back when my mates brother pulled them teeth from the buoy, he sent them off to a shark expert that confirmed they were great white teeth, that was years ago when...if you said there was great whites here to someone they would have said you was crackers....now there`s sightings all the time, every time now, i go out on my mates fishing boat (16ft) i`m aware that there could be one under us....lol and when i pull the anchor i`m wait for that scene from jaws to happen...lol were gonna need a bigger boat...lol

[tillylamp 1,957]

11 hours ago, Aussie Whip said:

Been a few Great White attacks here recently and my mates wonder why I don't surf anymore, lol.

that the thing bud, it`s not uncommon for us to hear of a great white shark attack happening in Australia or even south Africa, and on that note, i wouldn`t go surfing either....lol with the amount of GWS here i have only hear of one attack, a group of people moored up near an island and swam to shore, that`s when a GWS grabbed the woman, they swam over some rocky ground maybe that had something to do with it....maybe she looked like a seal shape?  i think she survived though to tell the story as i never heard anymore about the situation.

[mackem 30,466]

Here's the news report tilly the shark had a stomach full of seal and porpoise.

 

[Franks dad 2,672]

1 hour ago, tillylamp said:

me neither, back when my mates brother pulled them teeth from the buoy, he sent them off to a shark expert that confirmed they were great white teeth, that was years ago when...if you said there was great whites here to someone they would have said you was crackers....now there`s sightings all the time, every time now, i go out on my mates fishing boat (16ft) i`m aware that there could be one under us....lol and when i pull the anchor i`m wait for that scene from jaws to happen...lol were gonna need a bigger boat...lol

Cant Remember how old I was ,but First time I watched jaws was when it premiered on tv . I wouldn’t get out the bed for a pee coz I thought it was under the bed … kept calling our Nan to come up from downstairs to check … I was too scared to look …

[YOKEL 2,368]

14 hours ago, Aussie Whip said:

Been a few Great White attacks here recently and my mates wonder why I don't surf anymore, lol.

They only ever attack you when you're wet!....

Yokel 

[tillylamp 1,957]

3 hours ago, mackem said:

Here's the news report tilly the shark had a stomach full of seal and porpoise.

 

yes thanks for that, that`s the one is saw yesterday even mack, i wonder why a perfectly fit shark died....interesting to find out what happened! imagine that under your boat! 

[mackem 30,466]

1 hour ago, tillylamp said:

 imagine that under your boat! 

Could be worse tilly............

 

[tillylamp 1,957]

1 hour ago, mackem said:

Could be worse tilly............

 

that would be hard not to freak out.....lol...but, why didn`t he head towards the beach, it looked like he just kept running parallel with the beach. he`s more calm than i would have been.....lol

[Aussie Whip 4,364]

6 hours ago, tillylamp said:

maybe she looked like a seal shape? 

I'm sure they know the difference and are smarter than we think. I've heard the big ones could eat up to seven sheep, one after another. I can't believe I spent most weekends at the beach as a kid, and lived, lol.

[tillylamp 1,957]

2 minutes ago, Aussie Whip said:

I'm sure they know the difference and are smarter than we think. I've heard the big ones could eat up to seven sheep, one after another. I can't believe I spent most weekends at the beach as a kid, and lived, lol.

that`s a big diet....lol...mind you it`s not surprising though at 2000 + lbs in weight, in your opinion whippy, why do you think these attacks happen?