Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, founder of Atlantic Shark Expeditions and the Shark Research Foundation, has found a potential “hotspot” for great white sharks in and around offshore islands, including Mud Island in Southwestern Nova Scotia.
“Our research has shown we found an area that appears to be a great white hotspot that is really important for their summer seasons. We’re trying to figure out why it is a hotspot but it is critical habitat and it provides an amazing opportunity to study the population over time, monitor the population. I think this is a really unique and valuable opportunity,” said Dr. Hammerschlag.
For the first time in 2025, Atlantic Shark Expeditions offered full-day cage diving excursions from Sept. 12 to Oct. 30 in Southwestern Nova Scotia aboard the 40-foot Apex Explorer, departing from the Dennis Point wharf in Lower West Pubnico.
The first season in Southwestern Nova Scotia was “unbelievable, phenomenal and very successful. People had multiple great white sightings every single expedition. We accomplished a lot from a scientific research perspective and gave people the experience,” said Dr. Hammerschlag.
A highlight of the season was successfully tagging the first free-swimming great white shark in Canadian waters with a fin-mounted satellite transmitter.
Traditionally, fin-mounted satellite tags are attached by capturing sharks alongside vessels and securing devices to their dorsal fins. To avoid the stress of capture, Dr. Hammerschlag adapted a remote tagging system originally designed for whales and dolphins.
Using a veterinary-grade, CO2-powered applicator rifle, researchers remotely attached the transmitter to the shark’s dorsal fin with titanium darts—eliminating the need for hooking or restraint. Dr. Hammerschlag is hopeful that this step will help catalyze technological advances that refine non-invasive tagging methods for free-swimming sharks.
“This marks a milestone for our white shark research in Canada,” said Dr. Hammerschlag. “By deploying satellite transmitters on free-swimming sharks, we can collect vital data on their critical habitats and better understand how they respond to environmental change.”
The shark, a 12-foot female named Salvager, will provide scientists with near real-time insights into white shark movements and habitats through this groundbreaking non-invasive method. Salvager was named through the Shark Research Foundation’s shark adoption program by the YouTube community of Shark Scrapper, a recycling advocate with more than 14,000 followers. The name reflects the shared role of both sharks and scrappers in cleaning ecosystems—often misunderstood and underappreciated.
“Our community is proud to support this historic achievement,” said Ernie Petzrick, owner of Shark Scrapper LLC. “Knowing that Salvager was tagged using Dr. Hammerschlag’s innovative method that reduces stress on sharks makes this even more special. We look forward to adopting many more sharks in the future as part of our commitment to recycling and conservation.”
Salvager can be tracked in near real time on the Shark Research Foundation’s website, where the public can also adopt, name and track other great white sharks tagged by the foundation. This pioneering effort was made possible with funding from the Mays Family Foundation and Rock the Ocean Foundation, with in-kind support from Atlantic Shark Expeditions.
Salvager’s data is already providing interesting findings. Since tagging, Salvager has stayed relatively local, mostly sticking around the outer islands where it was originally tagged, but by late fall had also ventured in to the Bay of Fundy.
Part of the research aims to identify critical habitats, and Salvager’s track suggests these outer islands are very important to this individual.
Great whites are considered endangered in Canada, said Dr. Hammerschlag.
“The Canadian government has some strategies in order to help recover the population which is to reduce the threat to areas that are their critical habitat, and so we’re trying to identify that critical habitat which is the focus of our tours and the tagging,” he said, adding with the number of great white sightings increasing, “it’s an amazing opportunity to study this kind of emerging great white hot spot.”
For 2026, Atlantic Shark Expeditions will once again be offering cage diving expeditions departing from Sambro from June 18 to Aug. 5. The half-day excursions feature sightings of blue, mako, and porbeagle sharks. In Southwestern Nova Scotia, the full day great white expeditions leaving from the Dennis Point wharf will run from Aug. 10 to Oct. 15.
Dr. Hammerschlag said the community of Southwestern Nova Scotia has been amazing, very welcoming and very supportive of the new eco-tourism opportunity in the region. “They’re happy to have the science happening here and the tourists coming here. The community is very appreciative of that.”
Dr. Hammerschlag is a world-renowned marine ecologist and shark researcher. He is President of Atlantic Shark Expeditions and Executive Director of the newly formed Shark Research Foundation, a not-for-profit organization focused on increasing scientific knowledge, improving public perceptions, and promoting the conservation of sharks through research and education. He is also an investigator with the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network and a courtesy faculty member at Oregon State University.
