With more people on the water participating in the recreational food fishery comes a spike in encounters with sharks.
The waters surrounding Newfoundland and Labrador are teeming with wildlife including numerous species of shark – from the harmless basking shark, which is the second largest fish in the world, to the fearsome great whites of Jaws fame.
Local shark expert, Carolynn Miri of DFO says for the most part, sharks, regardless of the species, are more afraid of you than you are of it.
They’re also surprisingly curious.
The larger sharks like the great white, the blue shark and porbeagles will even take an exploratory bite out of something “to figure out what it is, even if it’s the propeller of an idling outboard motor.”
DFO is encouraging anyone who spots a shark, alive or dead, while out of the water, or on the shore, to snap a pic with the general location and tweet it to @dfo_nl with the hashtag, #NLsharks