SHARK WEEK: 14 sharks, including the Great White, swim in B.C. waters
- Thread starter agentaqua
- Start date
Ya - it quite a different ocean offshore of Haida Gwaii. Lots different and sometimes more Southern or warmer-water species there. The mainland of BC has numerous large rivers that discharge cold freshwater that cools the waters near the coast. Offshore and away from those river influences - it can be several degrees warmer and saltier. Occasionally you'll also see sea turtles and ocean sunfish besides sharks like the great white. And tuna, of course...
fshnfnatic
Well-Known Member
Years ago when I commercial fished,we were anchored out on the Swiftsure Banks.I got up that morning and walked out on deck to take my morning constitutional off the rail when I looked down at the stabilizer chain hanging in the water and saw what I first thought was a silver plastic bag draped around the chain in the current.Upon further inspection I realized it was in fact a long slender fish with very large silver scales, a very forked tail and a long pointed snout with lots of long needle like teeth.At first
I was stunned by what I was looking at not knowing what the hell it was,and yelled at my skipper to come out on deck to check it out.He was still half asleep in the fart sack and while he was pulling some clothes on,the fish slithered off the chain and slowly
drifted away in the current before my skipper got a chance to see it.Later on when we went into Ukee to sell our fish I had a look at a poster that the buyer had on the wall with fishes of the North Pacific,and there it was,a Barracuda.We also saw sea turtles
and huge Sunfish out on the banks that year.There must have been some sort of southern current converging there at that time is my only guess as to why those warm water breeds were there.Pretty cool anyways!
I was stunned by what I was looking at not knowing what the hell it was,and yelled at my skipper to come out on deck to check it out.He was still half asleep in the fart sack and while he was pulling some clothes on,the fish slithered off the chain and slowly
drifted away in the current before my skipper got a chance to see it.Later on when we went into Ukee to sell our fish I had a look at a poster that the buyer had on the wall with fishes of the North Pacific,and there it was,a Barracuda.We also saw sea turtles
and huge Sunfish out on the banks that year.There must have been some sort of southern current converging there at that time is my only guess as to why those warm water breeds were there.Pretty cool anyways!
spring time
Well-Known Member
Is there a program on bc sharks on tv sorry the link didn't work for me
looks like they removed the article, st. not sure why...
SHARK WEEK: 14 sharks, including the Great White, swim in B.C. waters
Scott Brown
More from Scott Brown
Published on: August 15, 2014 | Last Updated: July 19, 2017 11:31 AM PDT
Although it prefers warmer temperatures, the Great White Shark makes occasional trips into B.C. waters. Getty Images
For most Vancouverites, despite our ocean setting, Jaws is about as close as we’ve ever been to a shark — and it was mechanical.
We’ve spotted seals near the docks at Granville Island, and whales and dolphins while sailing on B.C. Ferries, but sharks — big ones, anyway — are something you only see while diving in the tropics, right?
Wrong.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has documented 14 species of sharks — from the tiny two-foot brown cat shark to the mammoth, but harmless, 33-foot plankton-eating basking shark — lurking in the coastal waters of British Columbia.
Also included in the list of 14 B.C. sharks is — gasp — the great white shark. The 19-foot monster with its triangle-shaped serrated teeth does indeed venture into B.C. waters, but the DFO admits it’s a rare occurrence when the big fish makes its way up here from the warmer California waters. The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates there is a growing population of about 3,000 white sharks in the eastern North Pacific.
That’s not to say we don’t have any big predator sharks who are permanent residents. Salmon sharks, stout 10-footers with sharp “awl-like” teeth, are very common around these parts.
While they feed on salmon and other bony fish, there has been at least one reported — but widely discounted — attack on a human.
In 2012, Campbell River’s Kaitlin Dakers was surfing off Tofino when she suffered severe cuts to two of her fingers. She said a doctor at the Tofino hospital and the surgeon in Campbell River who patched her up both said the cuts were from a very sharp, very quick bite.
A salmon shark was blamed. However, Nick Dulvy, a professor at SFU who specializes in studying sharks and is the current Canada Research Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, doubted it.
“The reality is that this shark has never been implicated in an attack on a human being, and there’s never, ever been a shark attack in Canada,” Dulvy told the Vancouver Sun at the time. “There are way more (people) killed by strikes of lightning in North America each year, and there are way more people killed by falling television sets each year than they are killed by shark attacks.”
Dulvy said it was more likely that Dakers was bitten by a seal, while veteran surfers claimed the injury could have been caused by her finger getting caught in her board’s leash.
Other common sharks in B.C. waters include the brown cat shark, blue shark (10 feet), Pacific sleeper shark (14 feet), sixgill shark (16 feet), spiny dogfish (five feet), and tope (soupfin) shark (6.5 feet).
Sharks listed as rare, or infrequent to B.C. waters, include the great white, sevengill shark (10 feet), bigeye thresher (14 feet), shortfin mako shark (13 feet), greeneye shark (1.5 feet) and the extremely rare basking shark.
The endangered basking shark, the biggest and rarest fish on Canada’s west coast and second largest fish in the world behind the whale shark, was photographed in 2013 by marine researcher Wendy Szaniszlo on the Canadian Coast Guard’s 58-metre research ship W.E. Ricker off Brooks Peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The gentle giant was nearly wiped out in an act of shark genocide by the federal government.
“Half a century ago Ottawa fitted sharp blades to the bows of its vessels to deliberately kill as many basking sharks as possible for interfering with commercial fishing nets on the B.C. coast,” Vancouver Sun reporter Larry Pynn wrote in 2013.
Once there were as many 3,000 to 5,000 basking sharks in B.C., but thanks to a liver oil fishery (1941-1947) and the federal eradication program (1945-1970), the number has dropped to “only a few,” according to the DFO.
“There were a total of eight reported sightings of basking sharks on the B.C. coast from April to September this year, mostly off the west coast of Vancouver Island but also as far north as Haida Gwaii. In addition to the one confirmed, two sightings were considered reliable,” Pynn wrote.
A 25-foot basking shark was spotted in Puget Sound near Seattle in 2014.
Sharks found in B.C. waters (from Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada):
SALMON SHARK
Lamna ditropis
• Pelagic (surface to 375 m)
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Short, heavy body; short snout
• Black or dark grey on the top; abrupt change to white blotches below
• Two horizontal keels just prior to tail fin
• Awl-like teeth with small sharp denticles on each shoulder of the main point.
BROWN CAT SHARK
Apristurus brunneus
• Pelagic and demersal (33-950 m)
• Length to 68 cm (2.2 feet)
• Light or medium brown
• Dark margins on fins
• First dorsal fin has posterior position over pelvic fin
• Two dorsal fins of equal size
BLUE SHARK
Prionace glauca
• Surface waters
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Dark indigo blue on back shading through clear bright blue on sides to white below
• Notable for the long sabre-like pectoral fin
• Well developed snout; slender body form
SPINY DOGFISH
Squalus acanthias
• Pelagic and demersal (surface to 1460 m)
• Length to 1.6 m (5 feet)
• Slate grey to brown on top, white to light grey below
• Two dorsal fins with spine in front of each
• No anal fin
Scott BrownMore from Scott Brown
Published on: August 15, 2014 | Last Updated: July 19, 2017 11:31 AM PDT
Although it prefers warmer temperatures, the Great White Shark makes occasional trips into B.C. waters. Getty Images
For most Vancouverites, despite our ocean setting, Jaws is about as close as we’ve ever been to a shark — and it was mechanical.
We’ve spotted seals near the docks at Granville Island, and whales and dolphins while sailing on B.C. Ferries, but sharks — big ones, anyway — are something you only see while diving in the tropics, right?
Wrong.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has documented 14 species of sharks — from the tiny two-foot brown cat shark to the mammoth, but harmless, 33-foot plankton-eating basking shark — lurking in the coastal waters of British Columbia.
Also included in the list of 14 B.C. sharks is — gasp — the great white shark. The 19-foot monster with its triangle-shaped serrated teeth does indeed venture into B.C. waters, but the DFO admits it’s a rare occurrence when the big fish makes its way up here from the warmer California waters. The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates there is a growing population of about 3,000 white sharks in the eastern North Pacific.
That’s not to say we don’t have any big predator sharks who are permanent residents. Salmon sharks, stout 10-footers with sharp “awl-like” teeth, are very common around these parts.
While they feed on salmon and other bony fish, there has been at least one reported — but widely discounted — attack on a human.
In 2012, Campbell River’s Kaitlin Dakers was surfing off Tofino when she suffered severe cuts to two of her fingers. She said a doctor at the Tofino hospital and the surgeon in Campbell River who patched her up both said the cuts were from a very sharp, very quick bite.
A salmon shark was blamed. However, Nick Dulvy, a professor at SFU who specializes in studying sharks and is the current Canada Research Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, doubted it.
“The reality is that this shark has never been implicated in an attack on a human being, and there’s never, ever been a shark attack in Canada,” Dulvy told the Vancouver Sun at the time. “There are way more (people) killed by strikes of lightning in North America each year, and there are way more people killed by falling television sets each year than they are killed by shark attacks.”
Dulvy said it was more likely that Dakers was bitten by a seal, while veteran surfers claimed the injury could have been caused by her finger getting caught in her board’s leash.
Other common sharks in B.C. waters include the brown cat shark, blue shark (10 feet), Pacific sleeper shark (14 feet), sixgill shark (16 feet), spiny dogfish (five feet), and tope (soupfin) shark (6.5 feet).
Sharks listed as rare, or infrequent to B.C. waters, include the great white, sevengill shark (10 feet), bigeye thresher (14 feet), shortfin mako shark (13 feet), greeneye shark (1.5 feet) and the extremely rare basking shark.
The endangered basking shark, the biggest and rarest fish on Canada’s west coast and second largest fish in the world behind the whale shark, was photographed in 2013 by marine researcher Wendy Szaniszlo on the Canadian Coast Guard’s 58-metre research ship W.E. Ricker off Brooks Peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The gentle giant was nearly wiped out in an act of shark genocide by the federal government.
“Half a century ago Ottawa fitted sharp blades to the bows of its vessels to deliberately kill as many basking sharks as possible for interfering with commercial fishing nets on the B.C. coast,” Vancouver Sun reporter Larry Pynn wrote in 2013.
Once there were as many 3,000 to 5,000 basking sharks in B.C., but thanks to a liver oil fishery (1941-1947) and the federal eradication program (1945-1970), the number has dropped to “only a few,” according to the DFO.
“There were a total of eight reported sightings of basking sharks on the B.C. coast from April to September this year, mostly off the west coast of Vancouver Island but also as far north as Haida Gwaii. In addition to the one confirmed, two sightings were considered reliable,” Pynn wrote.
A 25-foot basking shark was spotted in Puget Sound near Seattle in 2014.
Sharks found in B.C. waters (from Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada):
SALMON SHARK
Lamna ditropis
• Pelagic (surface to 375 m)
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Short, heavy body; short snout
• Black or dark grey on the top; abrupt change to white blotches below
• Two horizontal keels just prior to tail fin
• Awl-like teeth with small sharp denticles on each shoulder of the main point.
BROWN CAT SHARK
Apristurus brunneus
• Pelagic and demersal (33-950 m)
• Length to 68 cm (2.2 feet)
• Light or medium brown
• Dark margins on fins
• First dorsal fin has posterior position over pelvic fin
• Two dorsal fins of equal size
BLUE SHARK
Prionace glauca
• Surface waters
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Dark indigo blue on back shading through clear bright blue on sides to white below
• Notable for the long sabre-like pectoral fin
• Well developed snout; slender body form
SPINY DOGFISH
Squalus acanthias
• Pelagic and demersal (surface to 1460 m)
• Length to 1.6 m (5 feet)
• Slate grey to brown on top, white to light grey below
• Two dorsal fins with spine in front of each
• No anal fin
PACIFIC SLEEPER SHARK
Somniosus pacificus
• Midwater and demersal (surface to 245 m)
• Length to 4.3 m (14 feet)
• Blackish brown all over or slate green with darker streak-like mottling
• Short caudal peduncle (narrow part of a fish’s body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached)
TOPE (SOUPFIN) SHARK
Galeorhinus galeus
• Pelagic and demersal (surface to 471 m)
• Length to 2 m (6.5 feet)
• Dusky grey on top, paler to white on sides
• Second dorsal fin directly above anal fin
• Black markings on juvenile fins
• Slender body, long-snout
• No keel on caudal peduncle
SHORTFIN MAKO SHARK
Isurus oxyrinchus
• Pelagic (surface to 740 m)
• Length to 4 m (13 feet)
• Large black eyes, a sharp snout, large, narrow, hooked teeth with smooth edges
• Dark blue on top, white below; underside of snout and jaw is white
• Tiny second dorsal and anal fins
SEVENGILL SHARK
Notorynchus cepedianus
• Demersal (135 m to 570 m)
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Sandy grey to reddish brown, with scattered round black spots
• Seven gill slits on each side
• In upper jaw most teeth have one dominating cusp curved inward. Teeth in lower jaw have a series of cusps.
COMMON THRESHER SHARK
Alopias vulpinus
• Pelagic (surface to 366 m)
• Length to 5.8 m (19 feet)
• Upper caudal fin more than half the length of the shark
• Brown colouration
• Eyes moderately large
BIGEYE THRESHER
Alopias superciliosus
• Pelagic (surface to depths of 65 m, occasionally to 500 m)
• Length to 4.3 m (14 feet)
• Brownish on top, creamy white below
• Upper caudal fin nearly as long as rest of shark, notched or helmeted contour of head
• Huge eyes extending onto dorsal surface of head
SIXGILL SHARK
Hexanchus griseus
• Demersal (to 2307 m)
• Length to 4.8 m (16 feet)
• Dark brown or grey on top, nearly black in some specimens, somewhat paler below
• Six gill slits on each side, all long
• Two rows of teeth, moderate-sized in upper jaw, larger in lower jaw
GREEN EYE SHARK
Etmopterus villosus
• Demersal (406 to 911 m)
• Length to 46 cm (1.5 feet)
• Dark brown or blackish body, underside is darker; black mark above pelvic fins
• Short tail; short fins; spine prior to each dorsal fin
• No anal fin
• Large green eyes
BASKING SHARK
Cetorhinus maximus
• Surface waters
• Length to 10 m (33 feet)
• Greyish brown to slate grey to black; can fade to white below
• Very long gill slits, which almost encompass head
• Combs of horny gill rakers
• Small numerous teeth
• Strong horizontal keel just prior to tail fin
GREAT WHITE SHARK
Carcharodon carcharias
• Pelagic (surface to depths of 1280 m)
• Length to 6 m (19 feet)
• Slate brown or grey to almost black on top, shading to dirty white below
• Crescent-shaped tail fin
• Triangular serrated teeth
— Source: DFO
Note: This article was originally published in 2014.
Somniosus pacificus
• Midwater and demersal (surface to 245 m)
• Length to 4.3 m (14 feet)
• Blackish brown all over or slate green with darker streak-like mottling
• Short caudal peduncle (narrow part of a fish’s body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached)
TOPE (SOUPFIN) SHARK
Galeorhinus galeus
• Pelagic and demersal (surface to 471 m)
• Length to 2 m (6.5 feet)
• Dusky grey on top, paler to white on sides
• Second dorsal fin directly above anal fin
• Black markings on juvenile fins
• Slender body, long-snout
• No keel on caudal peduncle
SHORTFIN MAKO SHARK
Isurus oxyrinchus
• Pelagic (surface to 740 m)
• Length to 4 m (13 feet)
• Large black eyes, a sharp snout, large, narrow, hooked teeth with smooth edges
• Dark blue on top, white below; underside of snout and jaw is white
• Tiny second dorsal and anal fins
SEVENGILL SHARK
Notorynchus cepedianus
• Demersal (135 m to 570 m)
• Length to 3 m (10 feet)
• Sandy grey to reddish brown, with scattered round black spots
• Seven gill slits on each side
• In upper jaw most teeth have one dominating cusp curved inward. Teeth in lower jaw have a series of cusps.
COMMON THRESHER SHARK
Alopias vulpinus
• Pelagic (surface to 366 m)
• Length to 5.8 m (19 feet)
• Upper caudal fin more than half the length of the shark
• Brown colouration
• Eyes moderately large
BIGEYE THRESHER
Alopias superciliosus
• Pelagic (surface to depths of 65 m, occasionally to 500 m)
• Length to 4.3 m (14 feet)
• Brownish on top, creamy white below
• Upper caudal fin nearly as long as rest of shark, notched or helmeted contour of head
• Huge eyes extending onto dorsal surface of head
SIXGILL SHARK
Hexanchus griseus
• Demersal (to 2307 m)
• Length to 4.8 m (16 feet)
• Dark brown or grey on top, nearly black in some specimens, somewhat paler below
• Six gill slits on each side, all long
• Two rows of teeth, moderate-sized in upper jaw, larger in lower jaw
GREEN EYE SHARK
Etmopterus villosus
• Demersal (406 to 911 m)
• Length to 46 cm (1.5 feet)
• Dark brown or blackish body, underside is darker; black mark above pelvic fins
• Short tail; short fins; spine prior to each dorsal fin
• No anal fin
• Large green eyes
BASKING SHARK
Cetorhinus maximus
• Surface waters
• Length to 10 m (33 feet)
• Greyish brown to slate grey to black; can fade to white below
• Very long gill slits, which almost encompass head
• Combs of horny gill rakers
• Small numerous teeth
• Strong horizontal keel just prior to tail fin
GREAT WHITE SHARK
Carcharodon carcharias
• Pelagic (surface to depths of 1280 m)
• Length to 6 m (19 feet)
• Slate brown or grey to almost black on top, shading to dirty white below
• Crescent-shaped tail fin
• Triangular serrated teeth
— Source: DFO
Note: This article was originally published in 2014.
Glad to oblige Shuswap:Sorry Agent I was too busy watching Michael Phelps race a Great White Shark. Phelps narrowly lost. You should be posting real news like that - not that scientific stuff. Sad!
Climate change to bring great white sharks to B.C. says UBC prof
Computer models suggest today's rare sightings could become regular occurrences with warming waters
By Lisa Johnson, CBC News Posted: Jul 25, 2017 4:37 PM PT
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/great-white-sharks-bc-climate-change-1.4220807
Computer models suggest today's rare sightings could become regular occurrences with warming waters
By Lisa Johnson, CBC News Posted: Jul 25, 2017 4:37 PM PT
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/great-white-sharks-bc-climate-change-1.4220807
Maybe we should do something similar on the West Coast: http://oceantrackingnetwork.org/tagyoureit/
Similar threads
