Great white sharks: N.S. company announces cage dive tours

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Visitors wanting to see excellent white sharks up shut will quickly be capable to off the coastline of Nova Scotia as a company begins cage diving tours that will require each eco-tourism and information assortment.

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Neil Hammerschlag of Atlantic Shark Expeditions is teaming up with Artwork Gaetan of White Shark Analysis Charters to get visitors on day by day journeys out of Liverpool commencing in August.

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While at minimum just one other enterprise utilized to offer recreational cage diving to see blue sharks and makos out of Lunenburg, the duo believes it’s the initially-of-its-form in Canada as it combines a probability for the general public to observe terrific white sharks and support obtain investigate. Visitors aren’t essential to have a scuba certification.

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“We’re going to be bringing folks with us to encounter these sharks and cage dive with these sharks and support us with our science,” explained Hammerschlag.

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Their goal is to look for for excellent whites, tag the endangered animals and permit holidaymakers to see the species up shut from the boat or for the duration of a cage dive and snap photographs.

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“When they do, we’re really hoping to use all those photos to build a catalog of the actual sharks that are there. A photo I.D. databases,” Hammerschlag mentioned.

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Art Gaetan, the captain of the vessel for the expedition, has decades of working 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.

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“We obtained a single of the most incredible creatures on the world in our personal waters. I want to display them to you and see what it’s all about,” Gaetan mentioned.

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He mentioned he works by using a harpoon-type tagging device to tag the sharks and he doesn’t feed them, pointing out he has a method that makes getting bait off the line difficult.

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“We use bait to check out to convey them to the boat but the item is not to feed them, the object is to carry them to the boat so we can do our image identification,” Gaetan claimed.

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Surfers are concerned with the small business plan.

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“I imagine there should really be community session,” said Walter Flower, a extensive-time surfer who also owns a whale viewing company and has served with shark analysis as properly.

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Flower isn’t going to think the company will have substantially luck finding sharks much offshore and is involved the cage diving and bait will draw sharks inshore.

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He desires the organization to enable the public know the particular parts they program to do the job in and if there is a conflict with other customers, Flower thinks they ought to go on.

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“You really do not want to be sitting on a surf board, hunting a mile away and see a boat jumping for sharks, white sharks,” Flower stated. “It’s spooky more than enough as it is and to have an individual produce a feeding area… I do not consider which is going to do over too very well with anybody.”

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Hammerschlag mentioned surfers and beachgoers have almost nothing to get worried about, pointing out how their things to do will not be wherever near the place any individual is working with the drinking water.

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“Research in other areas in the world have proven no linkages involving challenges to ocean drinking water people and shark eco-tourism,” Hammerschlag explained, incorporating their pursuits will be extremely responsible.

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“We’re just likely to momentarily intercept the shark that’s now in the space. These waters are currently being frequented by white sharks. We’re just there to study them,” he mentioned.

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Hammerschlag mentioned the investigation produced will be presented to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to enable advise their white shark restoration organizing. They will also publish their outcomes in scientific journals and make the conclusions public.