Islanders encounter shark off Miminegash Harbour

An Island woman says she was surprised to see what she estimates was a 4.5- to 5.5 metre-long basking shark off Miminegash Harbour on Sunday.

Santana Gallant of Tignish was on her boyfriend's uncle's boat when they spotted what they at first thought was a seal.

"So we all looked over there, we're watching it, and then next thing you know, it just went down and it wasn't like a seal," she said.

The group decided to approach the mystery creature.

"We got closer, we got closer and sure enough there was a fin," she said.

"We were like 'Oh boy!'"

Gallant captured a quick video of the shark in which it turns toward the boat with its fin visible and then goes underwater, disappearing from view.

The video hadamassed about 32,000 views on Facebook by Monday midday.

"I don't know, it was hard to believe that it's actually in Prince Edward Island," she said,

"My father always said that they're around here but [I] never believed it."

Gallant said she believes many Islanders know sharks are out there, but not many have seen one.

"Especially fishermen they've seen quite a few in their nets and all that," she said.

Gallant and the other people on the boat believe that what they saw was a basking shark, as it was huge andhad its mouth open.

Basking sharks are amongthe largest of shark species; they can measure up to 12 metres.

"It's definitely something to see, for sure."

Fred Whoriskey, the executive director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University, tells CBC News that he too believes the video shows a basking shark.

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