A Dalhousie University student studying marine biology is sharing a breathtaking photo of a great white shark she took while on a recent research expedition off the coast of Halifax.
Geraldine Fernandez snapped the picture Wednesday from a cage atop a boat operated by Atlantic Shark Expeditions near Sambro, a rural fishing community in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
The male shark can be seen rising out of the water, staring almost directly at the camera, with his mouth agape and his teeth showing.
For some, the image may be menacing. But for Fernandez, who is studying to become a shark biologist, coming up close and personal with the shark was closer to love at first bite.
“The whole interaction was [one of] the most elegant, graceful and natural interactions that I have personally ever had with a shark,” she said Friday in an interview with CBC’s Mainstreet Halifax. “It was able to show its size and its power without even doing anything.
“People think they’re these mindless animals that just attack, and, honestly, all it was doing was checking out the people, being a little curious, and I just got really lucky that day.”
When the image was shared on social media, many of the people commenting thought it had to be the product of artificial intelligence.
But it came from a camera that Fernandez had attached to a pole. The shark was being monitored from a cage above, where she was stationed, and by divers underwater.
“This encounter was extremely unique,” said Neil Hammerschlag, the founder and president of Atlantic Shark Expeditions.
His company regularly works with researchers like Fernandez. It also offers shark tours for civilians in Halifax and Yarmouth at various times of the year.
“The other great whites we’ve seen this season, and there’s been a handful of them, they’ve all been really cautious,” Hammerschlag said.
“This one stuck around for hours, they had no interest in the bait … was more interested in looking at the cage, rubbing up against the cage … and looking at what people were doing on the boat.”
Fernandez has been obsessed with sharks since she was young.
As a summer research student with Dalhousie’s Future of Marine Ecosystems Lab, she’s been collecting data for a new method of monitoring sharks, which involves using a tool called a “shark bar” to measure the size of sharks in the water.
Her close encounter with the great white shark is more proof she’s on the right track.
“It definitely felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “All it’s done is just put more drive in me to continue my research and continue with shark exploration.”
