Fifteen-year-old Finn Holland loves animals, so when he heard that a shark washed up on a shore near his home in Maces Bay, N.B., on Saturday evening, he knew he had to help. 

Holland and his family drove their side-by-side vehicle down their long driveway, which leads to the beach in the small community southwest of Saint John. 

“When we saw it, it looked really hurt, it almost looked dead,” Holland said. “But then we saw subtle movements.”

“So I dragged him in by the tail into the ocean and I helped him guide himself in the water, and he just took off.”

Holland said he was hesitant to touch the shark at first because it was about two metres long and weighed about 70 kilograms. The shark has now been identified as a porbeagle shark.

“I was stunned, I mean, it was so fascinating,” Holland said.

Jill Holland, Finn’s mother, said she wasn’t surprised her son stepped in. 

“It’s exactly the sort of thing that he would do, just not even ask, just you know what, I gotta go, I gotta go save a shark, see ya,” she said.

“He just kind of took it upon himself and I was so nervous.”

Jill said they’ve lived in the community for 11 years and have never heard anything about sharks being in the area. 

According to a shark expert, it is a rare sighting. 

‘Rare’ encounter, expert says

“Encounters, especially in the natural environment, without like actually going out and hooking them or fishing them, are pretty rare,” said Neil Hammerschlag, director of the Shark Research Foundation and president of Atlantic Shark Expeditions.

“I consider, you know, a sighting of that species is a pretty special one.”

Hammerschlag said unlike most sharks, porbeagles are able to keep their body temperature warmer than the waters they swim in, which makes them able to access the cooler waters in Atlantic Canada and the New England area. 

However, what makes the encounter surprising, he said, is that they are not normally found in shallow water, which makes him suspect the shark was in distress. 

“Maybe sick or maybe it had an interaction with, you know, fishing gear and was caught and then released,” he said.

Endangered species

Hammerschlag said another reason the encounter is so rare is that their population has significantly declined over the years due to overfishing. 

According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, the species was first listed as endangered in the Atlantic Ocean in 2004 and is now protected under the Species at Risk Act. 

“It’s great that someone was brave enough and able to get it back in the water,” Hammerschlag said.

As for Finn, he is surprised at the amount of support his shark encounter has gained within his community.

“Animals, it’s like they can’t thank you … for what we did, but you kind of just feel it from their presence, that makes you feel that you did the right thing.”