Ocean research device victim of great white shark attack off Nova Scotia shore

A instrumentality utilized by researchers with Fisheries and Oceans Canada appears to person been the unfortunate of an onslaught by a large achromatic shark.

Clark Richards, a probe idiosyncratic with the national department, says his colleagues are assured the wound marks connected an water glider utilized to way water information are from a large achromatic — a taxon known for their sharp, serrated teeth.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada sends autonomous water gliders into the water arsenic portion of a programme to stitchery information connected salinity and somesthesia and to way tiny particles successful oversea water.

At astir 9 a.m. connected Sept. 22, Richards says 1 of the 5 gliders successful the programme was astir 300 metres beneath the ocean’s aboveground erstwhile it abruptly malfunctioned.

The shark had bitten into the assemblage of the two-metre-long instrumentality and taken disconnected 2 of its wings, Richards says, but “miraculously” the damaged glider was capable to support moving and instrumentality to the surface, and researchers were capable to retrieve the device.

The researcher says it appears the glider, which volition beryllium repaired, was attacked a 2nd clip earlier it made it to the ocean’s surface.

“The shark astir apt deed it down deep, thought it injured it, waited for it to drift up, and past astir apt took different ace astatine it,” Richards says.

This study by The Canadian Press was archetypal published Oct. 8, 2024.