Fish biologist and University of Guelph Professor Steve Crawford is in Southwest New Brunswick and Maine to study the white shark and to speak with locals from the region who have had first-hand encounters with the majestic shark. 

Prior to his trip to the Maritimes and the eastern US, Crawford recently traveled to New Zealand to interview local fisherman and industry professionals to gain insight into the migration routes and mating patterns of the white shark. From his interviews, he discovered that white sharks might not mate strictly in deep waters as scientists originally thought. He heard from locals with first-hand experience seeing white sharks mating in shallow waters. 

“He was a retired extremely respected fisherman, and he insisted that I come back every two weeks to have tea with him so I could tell him who I interviewed and what they said,” said Crawford to CHCO-TV about a man he interviewed regularly on his trip to New Zealand. “And one day after tea he said ‘Oh, by the way Steve, did I ever tell you about the time we saw white sharks mating out here on the Otago Harbour?’ And I looked at him and I said, ‘Dick, no one has ever seen that!’ And he allowed me to take down his story about that. It was just before I came down on this main New Brunswick component of the research project that just was sent down for publication.” 

Crawford is passionate about bringing these experiences and stories back to his students, and he encourages scientists to speak with more regular citizens with first-hand experience when doing their research. 

“Scientists need examples so they can see the benefit of engaging with people who have spent their entire culture, their entire lives, on the water,” said Crawford. “And if they can move their minds out of the labs, because a lot of scientists they get two or three weeks field season, and I’m sitting across the table from someone who has spent 65 years, you know? So taking that as an example to provide for the people back in my own science knowledge system, that is what this is all about.”

One major impact that these interviews had with Steve Crawford was changing his perception of white sharks. When talking with New Zealand locals and Cage Tour Operators he realized that sharks, much like us, have individual personalities that deserve to be recognized and explored further.

“The kiwis have this phrase, and it took me a while to figure out what the hell they meant because they kept saying, ‘These sharks are not silly.’ And I didn't really know what that meant until someone explained: ‘It means they’re really smart, Steve,’” said Crawford. “And when I interviewed the cage tour operators they got to know these individual white sharks. They would see these sharks nearly daily for weeks at a time, and then the sharks would move on in their migration and come back. They got to see them and know them over the years. These white sharks have individual personalities. And when you see an animal over a broader scope of time, and it’s no longer ‘apex predator, blood thirsty,’ if it’s possible that we could conceive that these are the shark people, that these are individual personalities that we’re dealing with then perhaps we understand them a little bit differently in relationship to how they perceive us.”