{"id":342196,"date":"2026-03-12T10:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/342196\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T10:15:09","slug":"extremely-rare-great-white-shark-appearance-recorded-near-vancouver-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/342196\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Extremely rare’ great white shark appearance recorded near Vancouver Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marine researchers say a 1,000-kilogram great white shark made an \u201cextremely rare\u201d appearance near Vancouver Island this week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unusual that a great white shark<\/a> would travel this far north during the winter but it could have been following a food source, said Nicole Nasby Lucas, a research biologist with the Marine Conservation Science Institute.<\/p>\n

She said the nearly five-metre long mature female great white shark named Kara was one of six sharks fitted with a tracking device in October in Southern California to determine their migration path to give birth in California and Mexico. The device pings researchers when a shark is at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extremely rare \u2026 It\u2019s not common for these sharks to come all the way up as far as Oregon or Washington. We\u2019ve had a few near Oregon but none that we have tracked that far<\/a>,\u201d she said of the Vancouver Island ping.<\/p>\n

She added that researchers will continue to study the sharks that go north over years to see if they repeat the behaviour and figure out why they travel so far.<\/p>\n

Kara may have followed a whale or previously had a successful feeding experience with seals and sea lions in the area, she said.<\/p>\n

There has been a recent surge in the seal and sea lion populations in B.C., which has caused a significant spike in Bigg\u2019s killer whale<\/a> sightings in the Vancouver and Victoria harbours.<\/p>\n

Nasby Lucas said it could be the abundance in marine mammals that led Kara to B.C. waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, she will turn around and go back, and they\u2019re pretty tolerant to cold water, so I\u2019m not sure temperature is a motivation. But food is usually the primary motivation for movement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said mature females usually stay in Southern California for half a year and then migrate over two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they go offshore for pretty much the whole time that they\u2019re pregnant, and then they come back and have their pups. It\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re trying to learn about these large females, is where they go to pup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Researchers hope that by studying the sharks\u2019 migration path when pregnant they will learn about what areas are important to protect.<\/p>\n

There have been great white shark sightings in northern waters before but they are rare, with only 29 sightings in B.C. and Alaska between 1960 and 2000, according to Villy Christensen, a professor at UBC\u2019s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.<\/p>\n

He said because the ocean is warming and that climate change is accelerating that warming, there could be more white shark sightings off the B.C. coast in the future, for example if their food source migrates to cooler water.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the ocean is warming at quite a rapid pace, it\u2019s likely that we\u2019ll see more of them,\u201d said Christensen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, to my knowledge, really early for them to be seen here. The water temperature cannot have been that warm out there so this is a little bit special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christensen said it\u2019s unlikely that great white sharks will ever become a dominant species off the B.C. coast because the ocean has warmed 1\u00b0C and may warm up 2\u00b0C or 3\u00b0C, which is not enough for great whites to call the north home.<\/p>\n

He added that great whites also tend to stay away from areas with their main predator, the transient orcas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ocean is warming and we are just at the northern edge of the great white shark distribution, so it\u2019s likely we will see more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said in the Strait of Georgia, for example, the water has increased by about 1\u00b0C in the last century, and it\u2019s accelerating.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we may see two or three degrees warming this century.\u201d<\/p>\n

ticrawford@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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