Cage Diving with Great White Sharks Coming to Nova Scotia? Maybe

Hey, if you don't mind cold water, you may be able to cage dive with great white sharks off the coast of Nova Scotia. Atlantic Shark Expeditions plans to run daily trips from Liverpool from Aug. 1 to the end of October. Customers will pay $395 for daylong trips. For now, snorkeling, no scuba, and no guarantee you'll even see a great white. The operator, Neil Hammerschlag, says you'll spot other sea life such as seals, fish, and birds, but this is "the adventure of the exploration . . . and the wild is completely unpredictable." To attract the sharks, he'll use large bait, such as tuna heads.

Hammerschlag, a marine biologist, has worked with and studied sharks for over 25 years in South Africa, the Galapagos, the Bahamas, and Florida. He will be using the expeditions to research how great whites are influenced by human activity and climate change and what the animals are doing in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia surfers are not happy. Walter Flower, the owner of the South Shore Surf and Board Shop, says, "Having sharks associate food with human presence, the vibrations of the boat and the splashing around of people in the water ... I don't think it's a good thing."

His brother, Bill Flower, a fisherman, worries about the tourists, who must be able to clamber in and out of the cage "with the animals nipping around your ankles . . . . For an inexperienced person to do that, they're going to be flopping and floundering on the top of the cage. They could have their feet over the side, their legs in the water - probably not a good idea."

Hammerschlag says beachgoers and surfers have nothing to worry about. "We're not going to be operating anywhere near where there's anyone in the water," adding that the boats will be at least three miles offshore. He says research from South Africa and Australia has shown that cage diving operations - including those that use bait - don't influence the behavior of sharks in a significant way. The Canadian government has granted him a permit for the day trips.
https://atlanticsharkexp.com

- Frances Willick (CBC Nova Scotia)