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News <http://www.valleytoday.ca/> http://www.valleytoday.ca/articles/2006/11/21/news/news03.txt Rare shark meets natural demise on rocks near Digby By Andrew Rankin The Valley Today Posted: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:10 AM EST =20 PHOTO: DFO officials had an unscheduled opportunity to study this 8.5-metre basking shark after it was found on rocks near Gullivers Cove. (Submitted) GULLIVERS COVE - A mystery washed up on the shore of the Bay of Fundy here. Not a murder mystery, but a mysterious death all the same. An 8.5-metre basking shark met its demise on a beach here, about 10 kilometres west of Digby, late last Friday night or maybe in the wee hours of Saturday morning. By Sunday, researchers were struggling to solve the riddle. "It's a shame to lose such a beautiful shark like this," said Steven Campan= a of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bedford Institute of Oceanography. "But it=92s a case of a natural death. Some just go to the bottom of the ocean." Campana and his team of researchers performed tests on the shark Sunday. Th= e researchers extracted a piece of its backbone, which they will test to determine how old the basking shark was. Natural death, it may have been, but the basking shark, the world=92s second largest fish, is not known to beach itself, said Campana. The 2,268-kilogra= m creature couldn=92t be moved, and there were no obvious signs that explained its death. But Campana guessed the shark may have hit a boat and become disoriented. Campana says it=92s never nice for a creature to die in such a way. But, he says, it=92s part of nature. Like whales, basking sharks filter feed a diet of plankton, krill and shrimp. They have many small teeth, nothing like the ferocious fangs of som= e of their cousin species. When Campana and his team of researchers cut the shark open, they found it filled with a reddish, gooey substance, which he said might suggest the shark was hanging around the Bay of Fundy, feeding on krill. He says the current warm temperature of the water has put some sharks off migrating. Once upon a time, says the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory, the basking shark was harvested for its liver and its huge amounts of oil used in oil lamps and machine lubricant. A single shark can produce 1,000 to 2,000 litres of oil. In parts of Western Canada in the 1950s, the basking shark was considered a nuisance to fishermen. Subsequently,an eradication program to eliminate basking sharks began. It decimated the basking shark numbers in the Canadian Pacific, and the population has never recovered. --Boundary_(ID_SECKEY5cfjWPu1x4GxA35w) Content-type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>FW: Rare shark meets natural demise on rocks near Digby -- Valley To= day, Tues., Nov. 21/06</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <BR> <B>Subject: </B>Rare shark meets natural demise on rocks near Digby -- Vall= ey Today, Tues., Nov. 21/06<BR> <BR> <FONT SIZE=3D"2"><FONT FACE=3D"Arial">from The Valley Today newspaper (Windsor)= , Tuesday, November 21, 2006<BR> </FONT></FONT> <BR> <BR> News <http://www.valleytoday.ca/> <BR> <BR> <FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF"><U><TT>http://www.valleytoday.ca/articles/2006/11/21/= news/news03.txt</TT></U></FONT> <BR> <BR> <H1>Rare shark meets natural demise on rocks near Digby<BR> </H1><BR> <H6>By Andrew Rankin<BR> The Valley Today<BR> </H6><BR> <FONT SIZE=3D"1"><B>Posted:</B></FONT><B> Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:10 AM = EST<BR> </B> <BR> PHOTO: DFO officials had an unscheduled opportunity to study this 8.5-metre= basking shark after it was found on rocks near Gullivers Cove. (Submitted)<= BR> <BR> GULLIVERS COVE - A mystery washed up on the shore of the Bay of Fundy here.= <BR> <BR> Not a murder mystery, but a mysterious death all the same.<BR> <BR> An 8.5-metre basking shark met its demise on a beach here, about 10 kilomet= res west of Digby, late last Friday night or maybe in the wee hours of Satur= day morning.<BR> By Sunday, researchers were struggling to solve the riddle.<BR> <BR> "It's a shame to lose such a beautiful shark like this," said Ste= ven Campana of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bedford Institute of = Oceanography. "But it=92s a case of a natural death. Some just go to the = bottom of the ocean."<BR> <BR> Campana and his team of researchers performed tests on the shark Sunday. Th= e researchers extracted a piece of its backbone, which they will test to det= ermine how old the basking shark was.<BR> <BR> Natural death, it may have been, but the basking shark, the world=92s second = largest fish, is not known to beach itself, said Campana. The 2,268-kilogram= creature couldn=92t be moved, and there were no obvious signs that explained = its death. But Campana guessed the shark may have hit a boat and become diso= riented.<BR> <BR> Campana says it=92s never nice for a creature to die in such a way. But, he s= ays, it=92s part of nature.<BR> <BR> Like whales, basking sharks filter feed a diet of plankton, krill and shrim= p. They have many small teeth, nothing like the ferocious fangs of some of t= heir cousin species.<BR> <BR> When Campana and his team of researchers cut the shark open, they found it = filled with a reddish, gooey substance, which he said might suggest the shar= k was hanging around the Bay of Fundy, feeding on krill. He says the current= warm temperature of the water has put some sharks off migrating.<BR> <BR> Once upon a time, says the Canadian Shark Research Laboratory, the basking = shark was harvested for its liver and its huge amounts of oil used in oil la= mps and machine lubricant. A single shark can produce 1,000 to 2,000 litres = of oil. In parts of Western Canada in the 1950s, the basking shark was consi= dered a nuisance to fishermen. Subsequently,an eradication program to elimin= ate basking sharks began.<BR> <BR> It decimated the basking shark numbers in the Canadian Pacific, and the pop= ulation has never recovered.<BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> </BODY> </HTML> --Boundary_(ID_SECKEY5cfjWPu1x4GxA35w)--
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