“Blue sharks are usually rare or rare visitors to the Bay of Fundy, but not in 2022!” the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station said in a Facebook post. A blue shark was also spotted near Eastern Wolf Island by the crew and passengers of a Quoddy Link Marine whale-watching vessel, according to Danielle Dion, the company’s senior naturalist. “This is my 21st season with Quoddy Link Marine,” said Dion. “So I’ve done thousands of whale watches and seen sharks in there [the Bay of Fundy]but I’ve never seen a blue shark.” WATCHES | Watch a lone blue shark enjoy the Bay of Fundy:
Blue sharks make their appearance in the Bay of Fundy
Not normally seen along the coast of New Brunswick, the shark species has been spotted at least 31 times in the last week alone. He said it was a special experience for the day passengers. “When the crew and naturalists get too excited, it obviously rubs off on the passengers immediately.” Danielle Dion is Quoddy Link Marine’s senior naturalist. Now in her 21st season, this was the first time she had seen a blue shark in the Bay of Fundy. (Contributed by Danielle Dion)
Rising temperatures could explain the sightings
The number of blue shark sightings may be increasing because water conditions now match the species’ preferences, according to Fred Whoriskey, executive director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University. “We have some very strange rotations in the upper atmosphere and wind directions and things,” Whoriskey said. “All of a sudden we got to the right conditions where the surface waters have warmed and brought in the blue sharks.” While he has not studied blue sharks in the area where the Grand Manan Research Station found them, Whoriskey has conducted research on the species in Nova Scotia waters. This year, that research found an outflow of smaller female blue sharks and an influx of larger male blue sharks due to rising water temperatures. The area he studied, and the one near Grand Manan, both have similar waters to the Gulf of Maine, so he speculates that warming temperatures have also attracted the species to the Bay of Fundy.
The increase in views does not correlate with population
Although more blue sharks are being spotted off New Brunswick’s coast, this is not an increase in blue sharks, Whoriskey said. He said this is just an increase in distribution and will be temporary. “Alarm bells have been ringing very recently around blue shark populations,” Whoriskey said. “They went from not being worried about it to suddenly becoming very worried because of sudden declines and problems related to fishing.” Fred Whoriskey is the executive director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University. (Contributed by Fred Whoriskey) The distribution of blue sharks extends far and wide, as mature blue sharks move in a line – meaning a large system of circulating currents in the ocean. Blue sharks travel to the coasts of the United States and Canada, loop south of Iceland, swim past Europe, to the equator and then return north, he said. “They circle around and around in that circle for the rest of their lives. That’s how they cover some really long distances,” he said. Some of the blue sharks tagged as part of the Whoriskey survey swam from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas for the winter.
A species that does not belong to the most dangerous sharks
Dion said passengers can be a little worried when they see sharks because the first thing that comes to mind is a great white. But Whoriskey said the arrival of blue sharks shouldn’t be alarming. “We actually usually spend time swimming with the blue sharks,” he said. “And we actually take groups of students out and take them snorkeling with the blue sharks.”
