Canada’s first shark research NGO and registered charity¹.

NOT-FOR-PROFIT REGISTERED CHARITY
Canada Revenue Agency: 834462913RR0001
Revenu Québec: 834462913RR0001

The St. Lawrence Shark Observatory (ORS) was officially founded as the Greenland Shark & Elasmobranch Education & Research Group (GEERG) in 2003 following three years of unprecedented exploration in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Saguenay Fjord, and the St. Lawrence Estuary. These ground-breaking expeditions resulted in the first cage dives with pelagic sharks in Canada in 2000, and the first dives with free-swimming Greenland sharks under natural conditions² in 2003.

Today, ORS research and conservation activities no longer focus exclusively on the Greenland shark, but also on the many shark, skate and ray species that inhabit the St. Lawrence Gulf and Estuary, the Saguenay Fjord, Atlantic Canada, and the Arctic Ocean.

¹ ORS/GEERG is not a citizen science initiative nor is it an environmental organisation.
² Multi-year (2003-2012) non-invasive shark observation conducted without the use of attractants, capturing, or restraints. All encounters initiated and terminated by the sharks.

First shark observation cage dives in Canada off Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2000. Photo © Jeffrey Gallant | ORS