2023-07-10 06:00:05
A growing number of great white sharks venture into the waters of the North Atlantic. This phenomenon is attracting growing interest.
Until 2006, only 32 great white sharks had been sighted on the east coast of Canada. Today, these impressive predators are observed almost daily. Their northward expansion has also slightly increased the number of shark attacks in the region, although these remain extremely rare.
Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) began to recolonize their historic range around Nova Scotia after their population plummeted in the 20th century (A century is now a period of a hundred years. The word comes from the Latin saeculum, i, who…).
Image Wikimedia Commons
In 2020, Julie Dimperio Holowach, a 63-year-old woman, was bitten by a great white shark (The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is one of the largest predatory fish…) off the island (An island is an area of land surrounded by water, whether that water be that of a stream, a…) in Bailey, Maine. It was the first documented fatal attack in that state. The following year (A year is a unit of time expressing the duration between two occurrences of a related event…), a 21-year-old young woman survived an attack off Cape Breton, Canada, a first since the 19th century.
Why are these white sharks heading north? The answer probably lies in the abundance of their favorite prey, seals. The seal population in this area has exploded over the past 60 years thanks to various conservation efforts.
Megan Winton, a scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, points out that the presence of great white sharks in New England waters (The New England region is located northeast of the. ..) and Canada is not a new phenomenon. During the 20th century, the population of great white sharks was devastated, recording an 80% drop. Today, thanks to various protection laws, their number is increasing again.
A great white shark captured and killed off Long Island (Long Island is an island off the east coast of North America with an area of…) in 1986. The shark weighed over 1,500 kilograms (The kilogram (symbol kg) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI).) and was 5.1 meters long.
According to Winton, the increase in sightings in the area is due to both the abundance of prey and the increase in the number of sharks. But the scientist warns that this northward shift may just be beginning. Indeed, with global warming (Global warming, also called global warming, or…) and the rise in ocean temperatures (Oceans stylized Ωceans is a French documentary directed by…), these sharks could venture further north and stay there longer.
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