Up close and personal with great white sharks with this N.S. diving tour
CTV
Tourists wanting to see great white sharks up close will soon be able to off the coast of Nova Scotia as a business begins cage diving tours that will involve both eco-tourism and data collection.
Tourists wanting to see great white sharks up close will soon be able to off the coast of Nova Scotia as a business begins cage diving tours that will involve both eco-tourism and data collection.
Neil Hammerschlag of Atlantic Shark Expeditions is teaming up with Art Gaetan of White Shark Research Charters to take tourists on daily trips out of Liverpool starting in August.
While at least one other business used to offer recreational cage diving to see blue sharks and makos out of Lunenburg, the duo believes it’s the first-of-its-kind in Canada as it combines a chance for the public to observe great white sharks and help collect research. Tourists aren’t required to have a scuba certificate.
“We’re going to be bringing people with us to encounter these sharks and cage dive with these sharks and help us with our science,” said Hammerschlag.
Their aim is to search for great whites, tag the endangered animals and allow tourists to see the species up close from the boat or during a cage dive and snap photos.
“When they do, we’re actually hoping to use those photographs to build a catalog of the actual sharks that are there. A photo I.D. database,” Hammerschlag said.
Art Gaetan, the captain of the vessel for the expedition, has decades of experience fishing in Nova Scotia waters and has researched great whites in South Africa. He’s also researched blue sharks in Nova Scotia but has moved onto white sharks.
