Queensland Beach temporarily shut down Sunday after fin sighted

Beachgoers at Queensland Beach in Nova Scotia experienced something akin to a scene out of Jaws Sunday afternoon after a fin was spotted in the water.

"I'm lying here with headphones on just chillaxing, if you will and all of a sudden I hear the lifeguard, really loudly, telling everybody to get out of the water," said Wendy Vanderhoek, who was at the beach when it happened.

"And then I hear people on the beach screaming, 'Shark!' and everybody's kind of freaking out and running out of the water."

Vanderhoek looked up and saw a fin in the water. She said she felt "severe panic."

"I'm like, I'm glad I'm on the beach and not in the water," she said.

It's not confirmed whether or not the finned sea creature was actually a shark. She said someone on a Sea-Doo went into the water to take a look, and they came back and said it looked like a sunfish.

Contrary to the lifeguard's advice, some people started going back into the water. Still, Vanderhoek said she wasn't taking any chances.

"Animals are animals in their wild habitat," she said. "You don't know when they're going to strike, so it's better just to chill on the beach."

By 1:30, Vanderhoek said she could no longer see the fin.

Beach closed as a precaution

Paul D'Eon, director of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service, said he got a call at around 12:30 p.m. from a lifeguard at Queensland Beach saying they saw a fin in the water.

"They saw it three times, and she indicated to me they suspected it was not a sunfish or a dolphin or a seal," he said. "They suspected it swam like a shark."

D'Eon said the protocol when a fin is spotted is to shut the beach down for two hours and keep looking for additional sightings. The beach can reopen if it's not spotted again.

D'Eon said these types of beach closures happen once or twice every couple of years, and Port Maitland Beach in southwestern Nova Scotia has been closed before. Sunday's incident is the first closure this year.

"Queensland is inland from St. Margarets Bay, so this is quite rare, actually," he said.

While lifeguards advise people to stay out of the water during this time, he said they can't enforce it if people choose to go back in.

In the meantime, Vanderhoek is trying to enjoy the rest of herbeach day. "It really puts a tail a fin-spin on everything, doesn't it?" she said.

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