New signs warning of great white sharks in the works for some N.S. beaches

There's growing evidence that the number of great white sharks is on the rise along Canada's East Coast, where plans are in the works to post warning signs for beachgoers for the first time.

Fred Whoriskey, director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says the population of these apex predators appears to be growing because of successful conservation measures and a rapidly growing food supply, mainly grey seals.

"We're probably seeing more animals here, though we don't know how many," he said in an interview.

"No one has a handle on the northwest Atlantic white shark population.... [But] I've spoken to a lot of lobstermen who are seeing things that they have not seen for 40, 50 years on the water. That would suggest [the sharks] are reoccupying areas they have been away from."

The North Atlantic population has been protected in Canada since 2011 and in the United States since 1994. Those protections were introduced after studies showed the population had declined by as much as 80 per cent as fishing increased in the 1970s and 1980s.

Now they're making a comeback.

Aside from more frequent sightings, there have been reports in Nova Scotia of two attacks in recent years, one of which injured a swimmer and another that killed a dog. As well, warning signs and flags have already been installed at beaches in Massachusetts and Maine following two fatal shark attacks, one in 2018 at Cape Cod and another in 2020 at Maine's Casco Bay.

In Nova Scotia, the plan is to install warning signs at about a dozen public beaches as early as this summer. But they probably won't look like the American versions, which often feature an arresting image of a great white shark, its sharp teeth and unblinking eyes the stuff of nightmares.

That kind of high-profile sign would be prone to theft and vandalism, Whoriskey said. That's why he wants to install smaller signs with QR codes that will allow smartphone users to download detailed information.

"It's good to inform yourself [about the risks], in the same way that we inform ourselves about traffic safety," he said. "Getting this information out to minimize conflicts between humans and wildlife is always a good thing."

Whoriskey is working with the non-profit Lifesaving Society of Nova Scotia, which oversees the lifeguards who supervise about 20 beaches during the summer. Each season, up to 500,000 people visit those beaches.

Among other things, the website will tell people not to swim alone or near seals, and to avoid swimming at dawn, dusk and at night, prime feeding times for great whites.

Shark expert John Chisholm, a scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, says the attacks in New England prompted officials to launch public awareness campaigns, install warning signs and roll out a shark-tracking app called Sharktivity.

"We know from our experience down here that people were unaware how close the sharks come in when they're hunting seals or feeding on fish," said Chisholm, who has been studying white sharks since the late 1970s.