WEBVTT
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Depending on who you ask, sharks are swarming Canadian waters.
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You can go cage diving with great whites off the
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coast in Nova Scotia. Yet encounters are still rare, and
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attacks on humans are even more rare. In fact, according
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to the Canadian Shark Attack Registry, which you can look
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for online, there have only been twenty nine documented shark
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of incidents or attacks in Canadian history. Shark attacks are
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defined as an aggressive action involving a shark, ranging from
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a bite on a surfboard to death. The CSAAR is
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a valuable resource that documents, provides contacts, and offers education
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on the attacks over the years, at least the ones
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that have been documented. But even more interesting is the
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fact that of those twenty nine documented attacks, seven of
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them are seriously in doubt, debunked, or just unconfirmed for
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various reasons. Today, we're going to explore those controversial shark
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attacks to see which ones may still hold water. Whether
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it's the tale of a man who fought a shark
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to the death or a child who who sacrificed to
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this wage the hunger of a ferocious attack, some of
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these incidents continue to give sharks a bad name. Eighteen
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forty six, Quebec and None of It, two of the
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earliest shark attacks recorded in Canadian history happened around the
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same time, and despite being reported as hundreds of miles apart,
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they also share key details and are remarkably similar. Let's
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take a look at both these stories before passing judgment.
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Our first story was relayed by Robert Michael Ballantine, an
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accomplished Scottish author and artist. He briefly documented a horrific
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shark attack in his eighteen forty eight novel Everyday Life
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in the Wilds of North America. The occurrence took place
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along the Moisy River in Quebec, where frequent disappearances of
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fishermen led to the belief that sharks were devouring people.
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According to the story, this did not stop an Ua
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family consisting of a man, wife and several children from
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traveling downriver in their sturdy birch back canoe. A massive
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white shark rose from the depths and began attacking their canoe,
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repeatedly rushing it over and over. The shark began to
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tear apart the canoe piece by piece as the family
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made for shore, and the man fired his gun at
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the creature to no avail. As the boat began to leak,
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the desperate man made a horrific decision. He threw his
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youngest child, only a few months old, overboard to be
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devoured by the shark in order to distract it long
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enough so that the rest of the family can make
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it to shore. What's even worse than a man sacrificing
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his son to a shark. It happening twice, this time
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a family in none of it in a kayak instead
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of canoe. Much like the first story, the man sacrificed
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the youngest member of his family to escape. Both stories
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are ghastly, but is there any truth to them? The
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odds of the same thing happening twice in the same
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year are next to none. But what about both versions
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being from one original story? After all, it's eighteen forty six.
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Record keeping is not great. Perhaps it was retold again
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and again, and eventually some key details were changed, but
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there are still details included in both stories that may
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make no sense. In both accounts, a sacrifice of an
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infant child is made seemingly with no hesitation by his father.
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What father, no matter how panicked, would do such a thing.
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There are other inconsistencies as well, such as the size
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of the vessel, the shark's uncharacteristic obsession with taking it down,
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and even the shallowness of the bodies of water described.
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This caused the entire story into question. With little concrete
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evidence addressing the inconsistencies, both of these shark attacks are
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dubious at best. Eighteen fifty nine human leg and greenland
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shark ninevet. Sometimes shark attacks are documented without the victim
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ever being identified. A greenland shark was reportedly captured off
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the coast of pond and Lit Ninevet, a common spot
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for these types of sharks. What was less common was
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the human leg that was found in its stomach. Greenland
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sharks have incredibly long life spans, living for hundreds of years.
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Although they are as old as dinosaurs, they're not as deadly.
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They're large, but sluggish and nearly blind. Not known to
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be particularly aggressive, they target smaller prey. This attack is
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not only the only one in Canada, but also the
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only one in recorded history worldwide. It was classified as
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such with no victim or means of identifying the source
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of the leg. The habitat of the shark was not
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exactly a prime swimming spot for locals, it's freezing gold,
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so uncovering what could have occurred was next to impossible. However,
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other options make a bit more sense than a shark attack,
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such as the leg being from someone who drowned from
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a passing ship. They could have been lost in the
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water and the shark could have just taken advantage of
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the free meal. With it being such an early account
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and no one to verify or investigate the circumstances further,
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this report remains an interesting, if unconfirmed account of a
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shark's interactions with humans. Eighteen ninety one men killed after
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falling overboard a French schooner had an unexpected visitor as
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it sailed the coast of Halifax. A shark had been
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following the craft and tracking its movements hundreds of miles
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as the travel, adding to the ever growing list of
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dangers that sailors face. Unable to ward off the visitor,
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disaster struck at the absolutely worst possible time, Young John Rolt,
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only twenty one at the time, was struck and reportedly
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fell overboard. According to his shipmates, he was instantly grabbed
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by the shark with its powerful jaws and dragged away.
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Both He and the shark were never seen again. The
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only piece of evidence around this death was a write
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up that appeared in the August thirty first, eighteen ninety one,
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edition of The Washington Post. It was the first reported
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shark attack in Nova Scotia's history. Several questions remained. How
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did John fall overboard at such a vulnerable time right
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into the jaws of an awaiting shark? Could he have
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been pushed? Did something else happen to him? If the
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sailors noted that the shark was following them, why did
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they not identify the species or give key details. With
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so little evidence, some doubt the legitimacy of this attack
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nineteen twenty five shark killed crazy. Vancouver is not typically
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known as a hotbed of shark sightings. Despite this, four
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species of sharks roamed the waters, including the great white shark,
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though they are more rare to spot than the others.
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Most sharks have a died a smaller fish and sea life,
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and would rarely interact meaningfully with humans. Only a few
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minor incidents with sharks have ever been recorded in all
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of British Columbia in the last hundred years, but the
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attack that took place on January eighth, nineteen twenty five
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is anything but minor. John Bruce was a commercial hard
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hot diver working in Vancouver during the construction of the
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Second Narrows Bridge. As a diver, his assistance below the
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waves was important for the long term health of the
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precious infrastructure that was blooming across the city. The job
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came with many risks, probably one of the more dangerous
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careers you could have, that mostly sent from the fact
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that he would spend most of his time ninety five
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feet underwater and a heavy diving apparatus. Just the week before,
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he claimed he had fended off and attacking octopus. He
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now carried an iron bar with him in case any
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other sea creatures wanted to attack him. On this particular day,
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he had been serving for leaks in the pipes deep
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below when he saw a dark shadow approaching him in
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the depths, and then it attacked. Bruce managed to fend
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it off with his tools, but he was locked in
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a standoff and unable to get away in his heavy equipment.
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Over fifteen minutes, the shark made three attacks while Bruce
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waved wildly. He waited for his chance and got the
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shark with an uppercut as it approached again, followed by
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another blow over the head and stunned it. Now Bruce
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was on the offensive, with two more blows before the
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shark stopped, beaten to death by the diver and had attacked.
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Bruce was exhausted and needed to signal as coworkers to
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bring him up. His takedown to the shark was legendary.
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Bruce was a hero, finding himself on the front page
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of the Vancouver's Sun. But is it true a man
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beating a shark to death underwater in a cumbersome suit,
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with no photos or verification of the shark species. It's
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then possible to know. Even if the shark died, it
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could have been by other means, and Bruce could have
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just made up this story. The benefit of the doubt
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says he stared down death and won. Reality is harder
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to believe, you be the judge. Twenty nineteen. Surfers stocked
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in Nova Scotia. Over the next hundred years, the reported
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shark attacks were fairly solid it became easier to verify them,
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but some incidents are still tricky. Take this event in
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twenty nineteen, not an attack but a close call, so
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still categorized as an incident. A group of surfers hit
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the waves off White Point in Nova Scotia. There a
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great day until it took a turn when one of
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them noticed a one meter tall dorsal fin following them.
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Wanting to create as much distance as possible, they tried
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to get the shore, but the creature appeared to tune
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to their movements, positioning itself between the beach and the surfers,
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not letting them pass. It seemed to be cutting off
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their escape and actively stalking them. The surfers were so
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unsettled that they doubled back on their boards to swim
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to the shore on the other side. They were not
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taking any risks and made the long journey to shore
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before hiking three kilometers back to their vehicles. They were terrified.
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They reported the encounter, even though there was no violent interaction.
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While multiple witnesses corroborated this story, the shark itself was
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never confirmed. Twenty twenty one swimmer bitten in Nova Scotia.
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A twenty two year old swimmer off the coast of
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Cape Breton was bitten once on the thigh, leaving her
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badly injured and in need of an airlift. To receive
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medical attention. Thankfully, she survived, albeit with many stitches, and
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her family confirmed that she was smiling and recovering well.
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The attack occurred during late summer, when warmer waters would
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draw in more seals and potentially sharks who were hunting them.
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Witnesses of the attack noted a blackish fin cutting through
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the water before and after the attack, but it was
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not positively identified. Other than the initial report, no one
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has come forward with further details that could verify the incident.
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Great white sharks do frequent these waters, making the attack
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plausible and the area specifically home to younger sharks who
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are still developing their sense and ability to learn what
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is prey and what is not. Without a professional analysis
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of the wound that the swimmer got, the attack remains unconfirmed.
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And that's the last one. Many of the stories are
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fascinating examples of human imagination and interactions with animals, but
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as a reminder, out of twenty nine with seven maybe
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in doubt, these are the only sort of shark attacks
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that have happened. So what is your favorite controversial or
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unconfirmed shark attack in Canadian history? Let me know what
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you think, and don't forget to subscribe, Thanks for listening,
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Depending on who you ask, sharks are swarming Canadian waters.
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00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:08.240
You can go cage diving with great whites off the
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00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:11.880
coast in Nova Scotia. Yet encounters are still rare, and
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00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.279
attacks on humans are even more rare. In fact, according
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00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:17.480
to the Canadian Shark Attack Registry, which you can look
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00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:21.039
for online, there have only been twenty nine documented shark
7
00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.879
of incidents or attacks in Canadian history. Shark attacks are
8
00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:28.320
defined as an aggressive action involving a shark, ranging from
9
00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:31.519
a bite on a surfboard to death. The CSAAR is
10
00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:35.799
a valuable resource that documents, provides contacts, and offers education
11
00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:38.439
on the attacks over the years, at least the ones
12
00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:41.479
that have been documented. But even more interesting is the
13
00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:44.600
fact that of those twenty nine documented attacks, seven of
14
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:48.399
them are seriously in doubt, debunked, or just unconfirmed for
15
00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:52.719
various reasons. Today, we're going to explore those controversial shark
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00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:56.079
attacks to see which ones may still hold water. Whether
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00:00:56.119 --> 00:00:57.920
it's the tale of a man who fought a shark
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00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.840
to the death or a child who who sacrificed to
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00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:04.000
this wage the hunger of a ferocious attack, some of
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00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:08.879
these incidents continue to give sharks a bad name. Eighteen
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00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.640
forty six, Quebec and None of It, two of the
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00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.040
earliest shark attacks recorded in Canadian history happened around the
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00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.959
same time, and despite being reported as hundreds of miles apart,
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they also share key details and are remarkably similar. Let's
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take a look at both these stories before passing judgment.
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Our first story was relayed by Robert Michael Ballantine, an
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00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.359
accomplished Scottish author and artist. He briefly documented a horrific
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00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:36.719
shark attack in his eighteen forty eight novel Everyday Life
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00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:39.560
in the Wilds of North America. The occurrence took place
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00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:42.760
along the Moisy River in Quebec, where frequent disappearances of
31
00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:46.000
fishermen led to the belief that sharks were devouring people.
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00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.719
According to the story, this did not stop an Ua
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family consisting of a man, wife and several children from
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traveling downriver in their sturdy birch back canoe. A massive
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white shark rose from the depths and began attacking their canoe,
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repeatedly rushing it over and over. The shark began to
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tear apart the canoe piece by piece as the family
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made for shore, and the man fired his gun at
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the creature to no avail. As the boat began to leak,
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the desperate man made a horrific decision. He threw his
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youngest child, only a few months old, overboard to be
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devoured by the shark in order to distract it long
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enough so that the rest of the family can make
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it to shore. What's even worse than a man sacrificing
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his son to a shark. It happening twice, this time
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a family in none of it in a kayak instead
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of canoe. Much like the first story, the man sacrificed
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the youngest member of his family to escape. Both stories
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are ghastly, but is there any truth to them? The
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odds of the same thing happening twice in the same
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year are next to none. But what about both versions
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being from one original story? After all, it's eighteen forty six.
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Record keeping is not great. Perhaps it was retold again
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and again, and eventually some key details were changed, but
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there are still details included in both stories that may
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make no sense. In both accounts, a sacrifice of an
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infant child is made seemingly with no hesitation by his father.
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What father, no matter how panicked, would do such a thing.
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There are other inconsistencies as well, such as the size
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of the vessel, the shark's uncharacteristic obsession with taking it down,
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and even the shallowness of the bodies of water described.
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This caused the entire story into question. With little concrete
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evidence addressing the inconsistencies, both of these shark attacks are
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dubious at best. Eighteen fifty nine human leg and greenland
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shark ninevet. Sometimes shark attacks are documented without the victim
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ever being identified. A greenland shark was reportedly captured off
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the coast of pond and Lit Ninevet, a common spot
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for these types of sharks. What was less common was
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the human leg that was found in its stomach. Greenland
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sharks have incredibly long life spans, living for hundreds of years.
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Although they are as old as dinosaurs, they're not as deadly.
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They're large, but sluggish and nearly blind. Not known to
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be particularly aggressive, they target smaller prey. This attack is
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not only the only one in Canada, but also the
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only one in recorded history worldwide. It was classified as
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such with no victim or means of identifying the source
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of the leg. The habitat of the shark was not
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exactly a prime swimming spot for locals, it's freezing gold,
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so uncovering what could have occurred was next to impossible. However,
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other options make a bit more sense than a shark attack,
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such as the leg being from someone who drowned from
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a passing ship. They could have been lost in the
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water and the shark could have just taken advantage of
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the free meal. With it being such an early account
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and no one to verify or investigate the circumstances further,
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this report remains an interesting, if unconfirmed account of a
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shark's interactions with humans. Eighteen ninety one men killed after
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falling overboard a French schooner had an unexpected visitor as
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it sailed the coast of Halifax. A shark had been
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following the craft and tracking its movements hundreds of miles
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as the travel, adding to the ever growing list of
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dangers that sailors face. Unable to ward off the visitor,
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disaster struck at the absolutely worst possible time, Young John Rolt,
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only twenty one at the time, was struck and reportedly
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fell overboard. According to his shipmates, he was instantly grabbed
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by the shark with its powerful jaws and dragged away.
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Both He and the shark were never seen again. The
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only piece of evidence around this death was a write
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up that appeared in the August thirty first, eighteen ninety one,
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edition of The Washington Post. It was the first reported
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shark attack in Nova Scotia's history. Several questions remained. How
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did John fall overboard at such a vulnerable time right
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into the jaws of an awaiting shark? Could he have
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been pushed? Did something else happen to him? If the
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sailors noted that the shark was following them, why did
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they not identify the species or give key details. With
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so little evidence, some doubt the legitimacy of this attack
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nineteen twenty five shark killed crazy. Vancouver is not typically
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known as a hotbed of shark sightings. Despite this, four
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species of sharks roamed the waters, including the great white shark,
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though they are more rare to spot than the others.
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Most sharks have a died a smaller fish and sea life,
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and would rarely interact meaningfully with humans. Only a few
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minor incidents with sharks have ever been recorded in all
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of British Columbia in the last hundred years, but the
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attack that took place on January eighth, nineteen twenty five
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is anything but minor. John Bruce was a commercial hard
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hot diver working in Vancouver during the construction of the
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Second Narrows Bridge. As a diver, his assistance below the
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waves was important for the long term health of the
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precious infrastructure that was blooming across the city. The job
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came with many risks, probably one of the more dangerous
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careers you could have, that mostly sent from the fact
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that he would spend most of his time ninety five
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feet underwater and a heavy diving apparatus. Just the week before,
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he claimed he had fended off and attacking octopus. He
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now carried an iron bar with him in case any
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other sea creatures wanted to attack him. On this particular day,
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he had been serving for leaks in the pipes deep
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below when he saw a dark shadow approaching him in
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the depths, and then it attacked. Bruce managed to fend
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it off with his tools, but he was locked in
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a standoff and unable to get away in his heavy equipment.
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Over fifteen minutes, the shark made three attacks while Bruce
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waved wildly. He waited for his chance and got the
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shark with an uppercut as it approached again, followed by
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another blow over the head and stunned it. Now Bruce
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was on the offensive, with two more blows before the
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shark stopped, beaten to death by the diver and had attacked.
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Bruce was exhausted and needed to signal as coworkers to
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bring him up. His takedown to the shark was legendary.
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Bruce was a hero, finding himself on the front page
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of the Vancouver's Sun. But is it true a man
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beating a shark to death underwater in a cumbersome suit,
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with no photos or verification of the shark species. It's
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then possible to know. Even if the shark died, it
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could have been by other means, and Bruce could have
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just made up this story. The benefit of the doubt
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says he stared down death and won. Reality is harder
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to believe, you be the judge. Twenty nineteen. Surfers stocked
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in Nova Scotia. Over the next hundred years, the reported
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shark attacks were fairly solid it became easier to verify them,
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but some incidents are still tricky. Take this event in
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twenty nineteen, not an attack but a close call, so
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still categorized as an incident. A group of surfers hit
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the waves off White Point in Nova Scotia. There a
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great day until it took a turn when one of
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them noticed a one meter tall dorsal fin following them.
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Wanting to create as much distance as possible, they tried
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to get the shore, but the creature appeared to tune
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to their movements, positioning itself between the beach and the surfers,
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not letting them pass. It seemed to be cutting off
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their escape and actively stalking them. The surfers were so
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unsettled that they doubled back on their boards to swim
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to the shore on the other side. They were not
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taking any risks and made the long journey to shore
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before hiking three kilometers back to their vehicles. They were terrified.
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They reported the encounter, even though there was no violent interaction.
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While multiple witnesses corroborated this story, the shark itself was
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never confirmed. Twenty twenty one swimmer bitten in Nova Scotia.
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A twenty two year old swimmer off the coast of
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Cape Breton was bitten once on the thigh, leaving her
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badly injured and in need of an airlift. To receive
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medical attention. Thankfully, she survived, albeit with many stitches, and
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her family confirmed that she was smiling and recovering well.
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The attack occurred during late summer, when warmer waters would
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draw in more seals and potentially sharks who were hunting them.
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Witnesses of the attack noted a blackish fin cutting through
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the water before and after the attack, but it was
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not positively identified. Other than the initial report, no one
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has come forward with further details that could verify the incident.
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Great white sharks do frequent these waters, making the attack
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plausible and the area specifically home to younger sharks who
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are still developing their sense and ability to learn what
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is prey and what is not. Without a professional analysis
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of the wound that the swimmer got, the attack remains unconfirmed.
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And that's the last one. Many of the stories are
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fascinating examples of human imagination and interactions with animals, but
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as a reminder, out of twenty nine with seven maybe
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in doubt, these are the only sort of shark attacks
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that have happened. So what is your favorite controversial or
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unconfirmed shark attack in Canadian history? Let me know what
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you think, and don't forget to subscribe, Thanks for listening,
