5 great white sharks detected swimming in waters off NY, NJ.
Travelers visiting New York or New Jersey beaches might want to keep an eye out for some fishy friends: Four great white sharks have been detected swimming off the coast in the past weeks.
OCEARCH, a nonprofit marine research group that provides open-source data about shark migration, recently recorded four male great white sharks around New York and New Jersey. The organization places electronic trackers on each shark that “ping” when the shark breaks the surface of the water, allowing researchers to track the sharks’ annual migration and movement patterns.
A great white shark pinged off the coast of Ocean City Monday morning. The shark’s name is Penny.
OCEARCH, a nonprofit marine research group, began tracking Penny just last month off the coast of North Carolina.
The female juvenile great white shark is 522 pounds and 10’3″ long.
Penny’s shark tracker pinged off 16th Street in Ocean City at 6:48 a.m.
OCEARCH tweeted it is watching Penny’s journey north for the first time.
White Shark Penny pinged in 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 #NewJersey #OceanCity pic.twitter.com/X3Xmbaj1Pw
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) May 29, 2023
Penny isn’t alone. On May 21, Frosty, a juvenile weighing 393 pounds and measuring 9 feet 2 inches long, pinged off the coast of Rhode Island.
Keji, a juvenile weighing almost 600 pounds and reaching over 9.5 feet in length, pinged on May 17th. Keji has traveled 7,697 miles over the past 368 days, according to OCEARCH.
Then Jekyll, another juvenile who weighs 395 pounds and is 8 feet 8 inches long, pinged on May 15th off Long Island. The shark has traveled 1,595 miles over the past 102 days.
The fifth shark, Simon, a 9-foot long 434 pound juvenile great white, pinged off Fire Island on May 2, according to OCEARCH’s website. He’s traveled 1,520 miles over the past 105 days.
Check out the OCEARCH Shark Tracker.
The sharks all appear to be making their annual migration from the Florida Keys up to the US Northeast and Canada, according to OCEARCH’s data.
OCEARCH previously told CNN the sharks typically spend their summers in the “very rich feeding grounds” off the eastern US and Canada before returning south again for the winter.
The research group captures sharks and takes biological samples from them before fitting each animal with a tracker. The sharks are then safely released into the wild, according to OCEARCH’s website.