Great white shark tagged with satellite transmitter near Nova Scotia

Researchers have tagged a great white shark with a transmitter near Nova Scotia.

A Florida-based research group has tagged the first free-swimming great white shark with a fin-mounted satellite transmitter in Canadian waters.

The Shark Research Foundation says it tagged a 12-foot-long female shark named Salvager at remote islands near the southwest tip of Nova Scotia. The transmitter provides real-time information on the shark’s movements.

“The shark’s data is already providing interesting findings,” the group said in a news release. “Since tagging, Salvager has stayed relatively local, mostly sticking around the outer islands where it was originally tagged, but she has also recently ventured in to the Bay of Fundy.

“Part of the research aims to identify critical habitats, and Salvager’s track suggests these outer islands are very important to this individual.”

The foundation says researchers typically attach fin-mounted satellite tags to the dorsal fins of captured sharks alongside vessels. Neil Hammerschlag’s remote tagging system, which was originally designed for whales and dolphins, hooks onto sharks with titanium darts, avoiding the stress of capture.

“This marks a milestone for our white shark research in Canada,” said Hammerschlag. “By deploying satellite transmitters on free-swimming sharks, we can collect vital data on their critical habitats and better understand how they respond to environmental change.”

Hammerschlag told CTV News Atlantic the tag isn’t permanent and will fall off in a few weeks.

“We’ve tagged a few sharks over the summer and the early fall that are bringing in data, letting us figure out where these sharks are going and really this tool provides an opportunity to study these sharks in more non-invasive ways,” Hammerschlag said. “There’s not many places in the world where you can actually go out and see great white sharks or that are great white shark hotspots. Really, you’re thinking now, Australia, New Zealand and now Nova Scotia.”

-With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis

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