Great white sharks are venturing further north than ever due to a burst in numbers, scientists claim. An estimated 2,000 great white sharks from the western North Atlantic population are believed to migrate north to feed in Atlantic Canadian waters each summer.

Tracking Shark Movements

Researchers have now tracked two sharks traveling further north than ever before – towards the northern tip of Newfoundland. The great white sharks are being drawn to Canadian waters due to food sources and protection efforts, which are helping their numbers increase, they believe.

John Tyminki, OCEARCH data scientist, explained a 9 ft male great white shark called Quint has been acting abnormally. The team are able to follow him because he is fitted with a tracker which ‘pings’ his location when he surfaces.

John said: “One of the questions that we have is, are shark ranges expanding? Are they moving further north into Atlantic Canada than they have been before? Sharks Quint and Cross are way up north on the northwest corner of Newfoundland. Very few sharks that we have tagged have ventured into that area.

“Is this a range expansion or is this normal and we are only starting to see it now? White sharks were greatly depleted in the 1970s to the 1990s and now we are seeing a rebuilding of that population due to protection efforts. We are seeing a positive return to abundance in great white shark numbers, we think their numbers are increasing and we are seeing more sharks near Canada this year.

In the last week OCEARCH have located sharks Webster, Nori, Bella, Quint and Ernst in waters near eastern Canada shorelines. The sharks’ trackers transmit a locating “ping” signal when their dorsal fins are exposed above the water surface.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.