A Cape Breton lobster fisherman and his crew had the encounter of his life this week when a large 4.5 -meter white shark surrounded his boat right next to the view, NS, ns, close enough to briefly bite the helmet.
Jimmy MacArthur, who has fish these waters since 1984, was working about three kilometers from Inverness in approximately 18 meters of water when the match occurred on Monday morning.
MacArthur said he heard a splash, but it wasn’t until he saw the dorsal fin that knew it was a shark.
“I am a kind of shark fan and I am in the ocean all my life and I never saw something as I saw that day,” MacArthur said. “It was quite good.”
A lobster fisherman in Cape Breton recently had a close match with a large white shark. Jimmy MacArthur was out of view, NS, when he saw something he had never seen in his 40 years of fishing.
The massive predator spent about four minutes investigating the ship.
MacArthur said the shark reached the length of one arm and at one point tried to bite the rear of the boat.
Warren Joyce, a shark expert with fishing and Ocean Canada, confirmed the species after reviewing the video of the encounter.
“It is a white shark, yes,” said Joyce, noting that the animal’s behavior to approach and try the boat with his mouth is characteristic of the curiosity of the sharks.
The shark seemed to have a remarkable bump under his dorsal fin that caught the attention of the researcher.
“It could be a wound that is healing,” Joyce speculated.
“I’ve never seen something so big,” he added.
The sighting occurred in the same general area where the first white shark attack registered by Canada occurred in 2021, said Joyce.
He pointed out that while such meetings are still rare, sightings have increased in recent years.
“We are seeing more and more every year,” he said.
MacArthur, who described the “really exciting” experience, said he never felt in danger despite the close approach to the shark.
He said he was not afraid because he knew that his boat was large enough to keep him already safe crew.
The great white sharks are a protected species in Canada and is against the law to touch or damage them.
Joyce says that anyone who reviews them must “enjoy the view and simply use common sense and precaution.”
He said he did not see signs of label tracking in the shark and believes that it is an unbelieving animal.
Joyce said he has written his colleagues at Atlantic White Shark Conservancy in Cape Cod and sent them the video.
He said that researchers will verify a database of more than 700 white sharks identified to determine if the shark has been previously documented.
For MacArthur, the meeting marked a climax of his career.
Your only regret?
“My wife was supposed to go out with me that day,” he said with a smile. “The good was lost.”
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