White shark sighting in Passamaquoddy Bay from the Quoddy Link

Hello everyone, well the town has been a buzz with the recent sighting of a great white shark in Passamaquoddy Bay, about 1.5 miles from the entrance to St. Andrews Harbour.  This shark was spotted and photographed by us from the Quoddy Link!!  You may have seen or heard Nick Hawkins, one of our biologists and naturalists on CBC or CTV talking about his experience.

Here is what Nick had to say about it in his own words

Our shark biologist friend Dr. Steve Turnbull has confirmed that the massive shark we encountered off tongue shoal near the mouth of the St. Andrews harbour was as we suspected - a Great White Shark! 

Here is how the sighting went down - While crossing the Passamaquoddy Bay we saw a large shark thrashing at the surface, its tail fin slashing through the water as it seemed to pursue something, most likely a porpoise or a seal. We turned around and approached the area and managed to relocate the shark that was swimming calmly with a small section of its dorsal fin above the surface. The shark allowed us to approach multiple times, putting the huge shark directly beside the boat for all to see.

A conservative estimate of the sharks size would range between 15-20 feet, enough on its own to set it apart from other commonly sighted species of sharks like the mako and porbeagle. In addition, the photographs clearly show the other important ID markers of the white shark - the pointed tip of the dorsal fin and the fact that the trailing edge of the pectoral fins are in line with the leading edge of the dorsal. It was truly amazing to be the in presence of such a creature!

We have had a lot of questions about this experience and YES, there are a lot of sharks in the Bay of Fundy and NO, the water is not too cold (whites belong to a group of sharks who are essentially warm-blooded, being able to maintain their body temperature higher than that of their surroundings to aid in quick movements will pursuing prey).  It's a good rule of thumb to always keep your eyes on the water, you never know what you may see and while there are a lot of sharks in the Bay the odds of seeing one while on a whale watch are not very high (being fish, they do not need to come to the surface to breath like whales do).  Saying that, in the fall some seasons basking shark sightings can be quite common as they do swim close to the surface for long periods of time  This was a VERY SPECIAL experience that was had by all aboard the Quoddy Link!

Here are some links about the great white sighting

Here's a CBC TV segment with our biologist and naturalist Nick about the great white shark that we found and photographed in the Passamaquoddy Bay!

Check out this interview that our biologist and naturalist guide Nick had with CBC Radio.

And THANK YOU to our passenger Dave Hannett who took this great video of the Great White Shark!


I want to mention we also had another white shark sighting in the Bay of Fundy on September 9, 2011.  This shark had just attacked and killed a harbour porpoise!  Check it out here

There will be more news to come about this great white sighting.  The individual was not in the catalogue for the North Atlantic and we have had the privilege of naming this beautiful animal!

Thanks for checking in and thanks for all of the support we have received this week!!  We really appreciate everyone!

Cheers,
Danielle