Up close and personal with great white sharks with this N.S. diving tour

Tourists wanting to see great white sharks up close will soon be able to off the coast of Nova Scotia as a business begins cage diving tours that will involve both eco-tourism and data collection.

Neil Hammerschlag of Atlantic Shark Expeditions is teaming up with Art Gaetan of White Shark Research Charters to take tourists on daily trips out of Liverpool starting in August.

While at least one other business used to offer recreational cage diving to see blue sharks and makos out of Lunenburg, the duo believes it’s the first-of-its-kind in Canada as it combines a chance for the public to observe great white sharks and help collect research. Tourists aren’t required to have a scuba certificate.

“We’re going to be bringing people with us to encounter these sharks and cage dive with these sharks and help us with our science,” said Hammerschlag.

Their aim is to search for great whites, tag the endangered animals and allow tourists to see the species up close from the boat or during a cage dive and snap photos.

“When they do, we’re actually hoping to use those photographs to build a catalog of the actual sharks that are there. A photo I.D. database,” Hammerschlag said.

Art Gaetan, the captain of the vessel for the expedition, has decades of experience fishing in Nova Scotia waters and has researched great whites in South Africa. He’s also researched blue sharks in Nova Scotia but has moved onto white sharks.

“We got one of the most incredible creatures on the planet in our own waters. I want to show them to you and see what it’s all about,” Gaetan said.

He said he uses a harpoon-style tagging unit to tag the sharks and he doesn’t feed them, pointing out he has a system that makes getting bait off the line difficult.

“We use bait to try to bring them to the boat but the object is not to feed them, the object is to bring them to the boat so we can do our photo identification,” Gaetan said.

Surfers are concerned with the business plan.

“I think there should be public consultation,” said Walter Flower, a long-time surfer who also owns a whale watching business and has helped with shark research as well.

Flower doesn't think the business will have much luck finding sharks far offshore and is concerned the cage diving and bait will draw sharks inshore.

He wants the business to let the public know the specific areas they plan to work in and if there’s a conflict with other users, Flower believes they should move on.

“You don’t want to be sitting on a surf board, looking a mile away and see a boat jumping for sharks, white sharks,” Flower said. “It’s spooky enough as it is and to have someone create a feeding area… I don’t think that’s going to do over too well with anybody.”

Hammerschlag said surfers and beachgoers have nothing to worry about, pointing out how their activities won’t be anywhere near where anyone is using the water.

“Research in other places in the world have shown no linkages between risks to ocean water users and shark eco-tourism,” Hammerschlag said, adding their activities will be very responsible.

“We’re just going to momentarily intercept the shark that’s already in the area. These waters are being frequented by white sharks. We’re just there to study them,” he said.

Hammerschlag said the research generated will be provided to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to help inform their white shark recovery planning. They will also publish their results in scientific journals and make the findings public.