Headed to a beach for spring break? What to know about shark-tracking tools like OCEARCH
Headed to a beach for spring break? What to know about shark-tracking tools like OCEARCH
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Massive great white shark caught and tagged off Florida-Georgia coast
Contender is a 1,653-pound great white shark, the largest male tagged and released by OCEARCH scientists. He was tagged off the Florida-Georgia coast.
Multiple great white sharks have pinged off the coasts of Florida in recent weeks as spring break tourists descend on the peninsula.
The sharks are tracked by OCEARCH, which has followed hundreds of sharks in the United States and Canada. One of the sharks tracked, nicknamed 'Contender,' weighs more than 1,600 pounds and measures almost 14 feet.
In 2024, more than 140 million people visited the Sunshine State. So, naturally, there is going to be interest among tourists and residents of where these nautical beasts roam, no matter how rare attacks really are.
With spring break upon us, here is what you need to know about great white sharks and the OCEARCH shark tracker.
What is the OCEARCH shark tracker?
North Atlantic great white sharks migrate as far south as Florida and the Gulf in winter, searching for warmer waters and more food sources.
OCEARCH has tagged more than 125 sharks, many of them along the Eastern Seaboard and Nova Scotia.
You can follow their journeys on the OCEARCH shark tracker website or by downloading the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app.
But OCEARCH is not the only tracking service available. Up north, there's the Sharktivity App, which was developed by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy alongside the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the New England Aquarium and the Cape Cod National Seashore. The app tracks sharks off the coasts of Massachusetts in order to provide real-time updates on the shark's locations.
"Our goal is to raise awareness and help facilitate the peaceful coexistence between humans and white sharks," its website said.
Popular destination tops shark attack charts
Florida is one of the most popular spring break destinations in the U.S., with millions of people visiting it every year. Just as it is popular for spring breakers, it is also as popular for sharks.
In 2024, the state topped the ranking for the number of unprovoked shark bites, even as the overall number of attacks declined in 2024.
An annual report by the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) shows 47 confirmed unprovoked shark bites globally, significantly lower than the average of 64 annually over the previous five years.
The U.S. had the most bites at 28 compared to 36 bites in 2023, for 60% of the world's cases.
How many great white sharks are there?
There's no absolute data on the global population of white sharks and estimates vary widely – from 3,000 to over 10,000.
According to NOAA Fisheries:
The stock status for white shark populations in U.S. waters is unknown and no stock assessments have been completed. No stock assessments are currently planned in the Atlantic.
Research by NOAA Fisheries scientists indicates that abundance trends have been increasing in the northwest Atlantic since regulations protecting them were first implemented in the 1990s.
According to a NOAA Fisheries status review and recent research, the northeastern Pacific white shark population appears to be increasing and is not at risk of becoming endangered in U.S. waters.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
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