Drummondville, July 25, 2022 — The Canadian Shark Attack Registry (CSAR) is the first database of all documented human encounters with sharks that have resulted in injury or death in Canada, including the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The data are compiled, verified and updated on a continual basis by the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory (ORS). We also provide behavioural insight as well as preventive safety recommendations for anyone venturing where sharks may be present.

The CSAR also presents convincing evidence that prehistoric encounters between Indigenous peoples and sharks, including fatal attacks, took place for millennia in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which lends further credence to our belief that the so-called return of the white shark in Atlantic Canada and the St. Lawrence is more akin to a semblance of normalcy than a significant effect of climate change. Nevertheless, the risk of being bitten, let alone killed by a shark in Canada or anywhere else—then and now—remains extremely low.

⚠️ Notice to recreational divers and boaters: Brion22 is a scientific expedition conducted under licence from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). It is strictly forbidden to conduct cage diving operations or to interact with the white shark without a scientific permit under the Species at Risk Act (SARA). SARA prohibits the killing, harming, harassing, capturing, taking, possessing, collecting, buying, selling or trading of individuals of endangered, threatened or extirpated species, including the white shark (Atlantic population), which is designated as an endangered species. Furthermore, and as stipulated by the Quebec National Heritage Conservation Act (LCPN), access to Île-Brion Ecological Reserve is also strictly forbidden without a permit for scientific research from the ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MELCC).

DFO (SARA) Scientific Permit No.:
QUE-LEP-014-2022
MELCC (LCPN) Scientific Permit No.:
3850-RE-R; 5141-03-11 [1.2]
⚠️ No sharks are captured or restrained in any way.