Nova ScotiaShubie River Wranglers, which offers rafting excursions, and company owner Emmett Blois are each facing five charges under the federal Fisheries Act for allegedly disturbing a humpback whale spotted last year in the Shubenacadie River.Humpback whale was spotted in 2024 in the Shubenacadie RiverLuke Ettinger · CBC News · Posted: Oct 16, 2025 11:24 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoShubie River Wranglers is owned by Emmett Blois. Both are facing multiple charges under the federal Fisheries Act. (Luke Ettinger/CBC)A Nova Scotia rafting company and its owner are each facing five charges under the federal Fisheries Act for allegedly disturbing a humpback whale spotted last year in the Shubenacadie River.Shubie River Wranglers, which offers rafting excursions, and company owner Emmett Blois were represented by a lawyer in an arraignment hearing Wednesday in Truro provincial court.The company and Blois are charged with disturbing a humpback whale without proper permissions, attempting to interact with the whale, as well as attempting to or enticing a humpback to move. Other charges include attempting to trap a whale between one or more vessels, and approaching a humpback within 100 metres.Shubie River Wranglers is among a handful of companies that operate zodiac boat tours on the tidal bore that forms as water rushes into the mouth of the Shubenacadie River from the Cobequid Bay. The charges stem from July 1, 2024.The dead humpback whale in the Stewiacke River in Nova Scotia on July 4, 2024. (CBC)On that Canada Day, a humpback whale was spotted alive by river rafting companies. The same whale washed up dead near the town of Stewiacke on July 4, 2024.The whale’s cause of death was never determined, according to the Marine Animal Response Society.“The carcass was left in the river as no arrangements could be made amongst the various authorities to remove it and conduct a necropsy,” the society said Wednesday in an emailed statement.In June 2024, rafting companies happened upon a minke whale stranded on a sandbar during low tide. A video posted to Shubie River Wranglers’ social media shows water being splashed onto the marine mammal until the water rose enough allowing the small whale to swim away. Blois and Shubie River Wranglers are due back in court for election and plea on Nov 19.A summary conviction under the Fisheries Act carries a fine as high as $100,000, while a conviction on an indictable offence carries a fine up to $500,000.MORE TOP STORIES ABOUT THE AUTHORLuke Ettinger is a reporter with CBC Nova Scotia based in Truro. Reach him at luke.ettinger@cbc.ca.
N.S. rafting company, owner charged with disturbing humpback whale
