Several great white sharks spotted off the coast of New York: how predators are tracked
'30.05.2023'
Olga Derkach
Several great white sharks have been spotted off the coast of New York and New Jersey in recent weeks. Now 5 are in close proximity to the shore, and several more are swimming nearby. This is evidenced by the data OCEARCH Shark Tracker.
OCEARCH, a non-profit ocean research group. It provides open data on shark migration. The organization attaches electronic trackers to each shark and gives it a name. In this way, OCEARCH tracks the annual migration and movement patterns of sharks.
On the morning of May 29, a great white shark named Penny appeared off the coast of Ocean City. OCEARCH only started tracking Penny in April of this year. She was equipped with a tracker off the coast of North Carolina. A female juvenile great white shark weighs 522 pounds (237 kg) and is 10 feet 3 inches (3,1 m) long.
On the subject: Five things you need to know about sharks on New York beaches
A shark tracking device spotted Penny near the coast at 06:48. OCEARCH tweeted that this is the first time he's been watching Penny's journey north.
White Shark Penny pinged this morning off Ocean City, New Jersey! We met this 523lb & 10'3” juvenile female #WhiteShark just last month off Ocracoke, NC and we are watching her journey north for the first time!#FactsOverFear #new jersey #OceanCity pic.twitter.com/X3Xmbaj1Pw
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) May 29, 2023
Penny is not alone. On May 21, Frosty, weighing 393 pounds (178 kg) and 9 feet 2 inches (2,8 m), swam off the coast of Rhode Island.
Keji, weighing nearly 600 pounds (272 kg) and over 9,5 feet (2,9 m) long, was spotted on May 17. According to OCEARCH, Keji has swum 7 miles (697 km) in the last 12 days.
Then Jekyll, another young male shark that weighs 395 pounds (180 km) and is 8 feet 8 inches (2,6) long, was spotted off Long Island on May 15. The shark has traveled 102 miles (1 km) in the last 595 days.
A fifth shark, Simon, a 9-foot (2,7 m) young male weighing 434 pounds (197 kg), was found off Fire Island on May 2. She has swum 1 miles (520 km) in the last 2 days.
There are a few more sharks swimming off the coast now. How close they will get to New York or New Jersey is still unknown.
If you want to follow the predators, then you can watch the movement of sharks on OCEARCH Shark Tracker.
According to OCEARCH, all sharks make an annual migration from the Florida Keys to the northeastern United States and Canada.
OCEARCH explains that sharks typically spend their summers in "very rich feeding grounds" in the eastern United States and off the coast of Canada, before returning south again for the winter.
The research team captures the sharks and takes biological samples from them before equipping each animal with a tracker. According to the OCEARCH website, the sharks are then safely released into the wild.
