‘It’s like winning the lottery’: N.S. scuba divers encounter great white shark

A scuba diver got up close with a great white shark near Nova Scotia.

An American tourist visiting Nova Scotia and his scuba guide had a rare encounter on Wednesday, as the two were diving at Fox Point Beach near Hubbards, N.S.

“We got in the water and we were out about 10 minutes when, out of the gloom, a great white shark came, pointed right up to us,” says Eric Peterson, a scuba instructor with Torpedo Rays Scuba Adventures.

“And she came right up to us. I could reach out and touch her. It was like a game of chicken. And then she veered away and disappeared into the murk and went back and then came right back again a second time.”

Peterson says he and the tourist, John Brooks, didn’t swim up to the surface right away.

Instead, they kneeled down in the water, as Peterson says most shark incidents occur on the surface. Video of the encounter was captured by divers who also witnessed the shark.

“The key thing with any predator is to stay calm and maintain eye contact and not show fear and not panic. So, we just (sank) to the bottom and went on our knees,” he says.

Peterson and Brooks watched as the shark, believed to be a female juvenile, swam right past them.

“My heart fell in my stomach because it was just such a beautiful thing to see,” says Peterson. “And, you know, just seeing that toothy grin and black eyes coming out of the murk at us was something that I could see when I closed my eyes later that day,”

The interaction was “historical” according to shark researcher Chris Harvey-Clark.

“Historical in two ways. First of all, it’s the best and clearest video we have taken underwater in Canada by a diver that was not in a shark cage… it was also a historic day in that we had two shark interactions each on one side of St. Margaret’s Bayon same day,” says Harvey-Clark.

Harvey-Clark suspects the shark Peterson and Brooks encountered may have been curious, but he says that’s never a reason to underestimate the species.

“We don’t fully understand what’s going on in their tiny, tiny little brains, but they’re a program predator,” he says. “If you encounter one, get out of the water. There’s no upside for you. If the shark decides that it’s going to give you a test bite, you know, that’s a serious thing.”

Despite experiencing what most would call a terrifying encounter, Peterson is still riding high from it.

“It’s like winning the lottery to go out on the water and see that…it’s a once in a lifetime experience to see something like that. And, both me and (Brooks) plan now to get matching great white tattoos,” he said.

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