Sighting of Basking Shark in BC Offers Hope for Population Recovery

A rare basking shark sighting off the coast of British Columbia has one local couple hoping the endangered species may be making a comeback in Canadian waters.

Vancouver Island tour operator Nick Gallant recounted to The Epoch Times his wife Kelly’s “exciting” June 14 sighting, saying that when she first told him what she had seen, he didn’t believe her.

The sighting happened while Gallant’s company, Island Magic Experiences, was hosting a group of guests on Wallace Island, located among the southern Gulf Islands in B.C.

When a few guests decided to go paddle boarding, Kelly opted to go too. She decided to head east of South Secretary Island to get video footage of the seals that often lay on the rocks nearby.

The footage she captured, however, was much more exciting then anticipated. After seeing a fin emerge from the water, she quickly submerged her camera to record the creature.

“When she got back to camp, she told us about it, and I immediately said, ‘you know, I very much doubt you saw a basking shark,’” Gallant said. “And sure enough, she pulled up the footage of it. I was very surprised.”

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Gallant said the basking shark captured in the footage was longer than his wife’s paddle board.

One of the benefits of the sighting, Gallant said, is an increased public understanding of the species, as sharks often get a bad rap for being aggressive or violent.

The average basking shark is 10 metres in length and has six rows of tiny teeth in its upper jaw, and nine rows in the bottom, totalling approximately 1,500 teeth.

Basking sharks were once prevalent in B.C. waters, but that was before a government sponsored cull of the species between 1955 and 1969, Fisheries and Oceans Canada biologist Sean MacConnachie said in an email to The Epoch Times. The cull was authorized because it was believed the large fish interfered with the catch of commercial fishing boats.

The species is currently listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

Marine ecologist and author Scott Wallace told The Epoch Times basking shark sightings are now extremely rare.

“There is, on average, about one confirmed sighting a year,” he said. “They are so rare today that any sighting is cause for optimism.”

MacConnachie agrees. “They are a very long lived species, and any sighting is an important piece of information,” he said. “Although one sighting is not necessarily a sign of recovery it’s a positive step and provides valuable data.”

The most recent sighting may indicate there are a few more basking sharks around the coast, but it’s “unlikely that there are huge aggregations that have escaped our observation,” Wallace said.

Gallant still remains hopeful that sightings will become less rare.

“They’re kind of an iconic species and are an example of how much damage we’ve done in such a short time, but also it offers so much hope in that they are rebounding,” he said.

“The fact that we’re seeing one in such a high traffic, high populated area, is such a big sign of hope, and if we leave it alone, it can come back.”