Shark sighting at Rainbow Haven Beach not deterring all beachgoers

Rainbow Haven Beach in Cow Bay, N.S., was busy Monday, but Sunday's shark sighting was on the minds of many beachgoers.

“I got a few messages in my inbox actually and people were like, 'don’t go to Rainbow, don’t go to Rainbow,' but we figured we would just come here for a treat and see. Not necessarily get in the water,” says Amanda Porro.

“You see it at all the different beaches, so I don’t think it’s any different for them to be seen here,” adds Stacey MacLean.

Jennifer Hood is the South West Shore-area supervisor for the Lifeguard Service of Nova Scotia and was at Rainbow Haven on Sunday for the Canadian Surf Lifesaving Championships. She spotted the fin in the channel just off the beach.

“I saw it swim the whole way out. It stayed above water the whole time until it got out of sight,” Hood says.

She says that lasted about 10 minutes. Hood followed protocol and alerted the on-duty lifeguard.

“We ask people to exit the water and we close our beach for swimming for two hours and for those two hours we monitor the site closely,” says Paul D’Eon, the director of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service.

D’Eon says shark sightings are more common in the area around Yarmouth and St. Mary’s Bay along the southwest coast of the province.

Last week, a great white shark was caught on camera off the west coast of Cape Breton. Still, according to D’Eon, the province's supervised beaches are very safe.

“We’ve not had a shark attack on any of our beaches -- this is our 51st season,” he says.

There are usually three to four shark sightings at supervised beaches each summer. D’Eon says Sunday’s at Rainbow Haven was the third this year.

“And they’re not going anywhere either, so if we are afraid of the water then, for Canada‘s Ocean Playground, that’s not really a good thing right?” Porro says.

D’Eon’s advice for members of the public who see what they think is a shark is the same for what lifeguards are told to do -- tell anyone in the water and then stay on the beach for a couple hours until it has time to swim away.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.