A new business is offering tourists a chance to cage dive with great white sharks off the coast of Nova Scotia while combining research with the thrill of getting up close and personal with these fascinating fishes.
Neil Hammerschlag, a marine biologist with over 25 years of experience working with and studying sharks, is heading up the operation. Atlantic Shark Expeditions will run daily trips from the marina in Brooklyn, N.S., outside Liverpool, from Aug. 1 to the end of October. Customers will have the option to pay $395 each for the day-long trip, and can choose to view sharks from the boat or from a cage where they will wear a wetsuit and use a snorkel.
Hammerschlag is excited about the initiative and hopes that Nova Scotians will embrace it. “Nova Scotia bills itself as Canada’s Ocean Playground and this another way of enjoying the amazing marine ecosystem,” he said. Great white sharks are known to visit the waters off Nova Scotia, and tagging efforts in recent years have brought more attention to their presence.
Dr. Neil Hammerschlag is a shark researcher based out of Nova Scotia, he is also the owner and president of Atlantic Shark Expeditions. Photo:ASE
The expeditions will also help Hammerschlag conduct research on how human activity and climate change are affecting great white sharks, and to learn more about how their population is changing over time and what the animals are doing in Nova Scotia. He will tag sharks, build up an identification database, take biopsies for ecotoxicology studies, and conduct ultrasounds on the animals as they swim.
“We’re really trying to figure out more about the white sharks off of Nova Scotia,” Hammerschlag said. “They’re an endangered species and with their increased presence in the North Atlantic it’s really important to figure out what makes them tick so we can make sure we can protect that to support their recovery.”
While sightings during expeditions are not guaranteed, customers will have the opportunity to spot other sea life such as seals, fish, and birds. Hammerschlag assured beachgoers and surfers that they have nothing to worry about. “Operations similar to this have taken place elsewhere in the world without any increase in shark attacks so we are confident this won’t alter their behavior” he said, adding that the boats will be at least nearly 5 kilometres offshore.
Anyone wanting to book an excursion with Atlantic Shark Expeditions can do through their website, and you do not require scuba experience as the cage is kept close enough to the surface that snorkels are sufficient.
