Some beachgoers sticking to the shore after shark sightings at N.S. beaches

Sharks causing concern on Nova Scotia beaches Several great whites have pinged near the coast and a beach was closed after dorsal fin spotted. Allan April reports.

HUBBARDS, N.S. — Shark week is turning into shark month in Nova Scotia as recent sightings of great white sharks along the coast are causing concerns.

On a wet Monday, there wasn't much action at Queensland Beach, but it was a different scene Sunday afternoon.

Lifeguard Nicole Windsor spotted something unusual in the water.

"I was in the chair and I saw a fin to the left of the buoy," Windsor said. "There were some people that came up and let us know, and we went down and cleared the water."

Windsor says there were roughly 50 people in the water and 250 on land when the fin was spotted.

Lifeguards quickly cleared the area, and observed for two hours before reopening the beach.

"A lot of people were concerned that it was a shark," Windsor said. "The people who were next to it in a boat were saying it was sunfish, but we can't identify anything, so we just assumed it was the worst and followed our protocol."

The director of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service believes it may have been a shark.

"Shark movements are fairly distinctive," said Paul d'Eon. "They move side to side, while other sea animals like seals, dolphins and porpoises move up and down, so this was fairly distinctive to a shark movement."

It's been a hot topic on Nova Scotia beaches, with several recent sightings.

As of Monday morning, the Ocearch tracker showed four great white sharks just off the coast of Nova Scotia.

On Monday, the few beachgoers to Queensland had heard of the potential shark sighting, and were enjoying the ocean views from a distance.

"We're hearing more than before, we've been around for a lot of years and haven't really heard a lot, but yeah, this year seems to be more than before," said beach walker Carmen Webb.

The founder of Ocearch says, while the risk of a shark attack is miniscule, a little common sense goes a long way.

"If we can use common sense and not put ourselves in the middle of their food chain dressed like seals, we can take an extreme unlikely event and make it even less likely," said Chris Fischer.

A reminder that while Maritime beaches may look calm and quiet, you never know what might lie beneath

D'Eon says in his 46 years as a lifeguard, he's never heard of a shark spotted at Queensland.

But he doesn't think this summer's sightings are too unusual.

"We have one or two every year, as far back as 1978 when I was beach captain, and we had two great whites caught off of Ingonish Beach," d'Eon said. "So, I think they've been here all along, we're just getting better technology to track them."

In addition to the Ocearch tracker, another way to tell if sharks are potentially in the area is the behaviour of seals.

Experts say if you see many seals on land, or on the rocks, rather than in the water, there's a chance sharks could be in the area.