A great white shark has recently been confirmed to be in Canadian waters, just off the coast of Vancouver Island.
According to the Marine Conservation Science Institute (MCSI), this great white is the first to delve into Canada’s waters.
MCSI recently launched an app that allows anyone to track the great whites that have been tagged.
This has allowed not only shark researchers, but all shark enthusiasts to follow and track sharks’ movements.
The great white that was recently off the coast of the island has been dubbed Kara.
“If you are following MCSI’s tagged white sharks on the app Expedition White Shark, you will have noticed that female shark Kara has moved up as far north as Vancouver Island Canada,” wrote MCSI in a social media post.
“This mature female white shark was tagged off Southern California last October. This is the farthest north we have tracked one of our tagged sharks”
MCS researchers noted that this trip north was most likely food motivated, as Kara may have been following a seal colony or a whale migration across the invisible border.
“Although this movement pattern is not typical, if she is successful in finding food she will repeat this pattern again [two] years from now. Very interesting,” MCSI concluded.
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The MCSI post got nothing but enthusiasm from Canadian commenters.
“As someone living on Van Isle this is very exciting…this shark should be able to secure a seal snack with little trouble,” one wrote.
Another noted that there were three transient orcas in the Vancouver Harbour on the same day the shark came for a visit.
“I wonder if they followed the same food source that Kara was following,” they said.
While it is commonplace for great white sharks to be in the Canadian Atlantic Ocean’s waters, this is the first Canadian Pacific encounter.
According to experts, sharks may venture further north every year as the temperature of the waters increase, as has been the case in the Atlantic.
Download the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app to track Kara and others and see for yourself where these alpha predators like to roam.
