Local researcher seeks ‘traditional knowledge’ in studying sharks

FERGUS – It may be “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, but one Fergus resident prefers to devote far more than seven days per year to the marine predators. 

Steve Crawford, a professor in the integrative biology department at the University of Guelph, has researched great white sharks off the coast of the Maritime provinces.

His interest in sharks stems from adolescence. Crawford recalls reading a series of books by oceanographer Jacques Cousteau as a teen, where he first encountered the great white shark. 

Today, that fascination with sharks has become part of a broader research philosophy. Across much of his work, Crawford seeks what he calls “traditional knowledge”: getting input about natural phenomena from people who encounter them.

While Crawford has previously drawn on Indigenous knowledge in other research, his work on great white sharks off Canada’s east coast has broadened that approach. 

His surveys gather first-hand observations from fishermen, Indigenous communities, divers, ferry operators and environmental officials from the federal and provincial governments, as well as U.S. federal and state agencies.

“Personal and professional experience have consistently shown me that Indigenous or local knowledge systems typically know a great deal that the science knowledge system has never even considered,” Crawford said.

Recent events have also highlighted the value of traditional knowledge, including recently captured footage of a particularly large great white shark swimming off Grand Manan, an island near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. 

The shark was eventually caught in a herring weir, a trap designed to capture schools of herring, and was identified as a very large female. 

Female great white sharks are typically between 15 and 17 feet long. The finding of large females lends support to the notion that the waters around Grand Manan may serve as a breeding area for great white sharks.

Drawing on first-hand accounts has also helped shape scientific understanding of great white sharks in the Bay of Fundy. 

There is debate among scientists about the number of great whites present in the bay. While some scientists have made conservative estimates based on tracking experiments, Crawford argues such experiments may only capture the proverbial tip of the iceberg in terms of population size. 

Scientists have been reluctant to estimate a specific number, but there is broad agreement that shark sightings in the region have been increasing.

Crawford also credits students in the University of Guelph’s Marine Biology and Oceanography Field Course, an upper-year zoology course that includes a two-week field trip to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. 

Each summer, students help expand an ongoing survey documenting traditional knowledge of great white sharks throughout the North Atlantic by interviewing people whose livelihoods keep them closely connected to the ocean.

For Crawford, the project reflects a broader philosophy of scientific research. 

Long before a scientist deploys a tag or conducts a survey, people who spend their lives on the water have accumulated generations of ecological knowledge through careful observation. 

As evidence of great white sharks continues to emerge off Canada’s east coast, from increased sightings in Passamaquoddy Bay to the capture off Grand Manan, traditional knowledge is helping scientists better understand where they live, how they move and perhaps even where they breed.