First, it was a killer whale, or an orca, at the Canso Causeway. Then, there was a beluga whale that made its way into the Bras d’Or Lake at St. Peter’s, N.S. Most recently, there has been some excitement around Mabou, N.S., after a great white shark named Bella was pinged in the water nearby. “It’s definitely the talk of the town — at the grocery stores, at gas stations and especially on Facebook,” said Ryan MacDonald, a radio host in the Mabou area. MacDonald said a lot of the attempts to spot the great white — as well as the orca and beluga earlier this summer — appear to be fuelled by online content. “Looking at social media and that, people seem to be interested in seeing it,” MacDonald said. “I don’t know if they are going out on boats looking for it or not, but like people were asking, ‘Is it still OK to go swimming in the Mabou area?’” “Just think about it now. Everyone, they have got their mobile phones, they have got hand-held drones,” said Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, a marine ecologist and shark researcher based in Nova Scotia. Hammerschlag spent Tuesday cage diving with great whites. While there have no doubt been changes in human behaviour, he said there have also been changes to marine ecosystems. “There are changes happening to the environment, particularly the waters are warming,” Hammerschlag said. “The oceans are warming in places that historically may have been too cold for them to spend a lot of time.” This past weekend, a lifeguard in Scarborough, Maine, was pulled off his rescue device by a great white during routine patrol. He was not seriously hurt. The incident happened after a record number of shark sightings in the area. As proof that rare sightings of marine animals have happened in the past, CTV Atlantic archive video from 1992 shows when a whale named Willard got stuck for days in Sydney River, N.S. It caused a sensation then, as the recent shark and whale appearances do now. “People see them in other parts of the world all the time but to see something like an orca in Cape Breton Island, it’s pretty cool,” MacDonald said. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
