Latest news with #OCEARCHGlobalSharkTracker
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Great white shark drawing? Massive 'artist' white shark again pings off Florida coast
A massive, 1,400-pound white shark, known for making a great white shark "drawing," pinged off the Florida coast Saturday. Breton, a 13-foot adult male, was far off the Jacksonville Beach coast when trackers received a ping of his location at 8:54 p.m. Breton was tagged in 2020 by the research group OCEARCH during an expedition in Nova Scotia. His pings are tracked when the satellite tag attached to his dorsal fin moves above water long enough to send location information. Breton is a repeat visitor to Florida. His tracker shows he's visited here the past four winters as many snowbirds do: enjoying the warm waters and plentiful food sources around the Sunshine State. And on the OCEARCH shark tracker map, Breton's pings reveal something amazing. He spent a little over two years making a "self-portrait." His pings between September 2020 and January 2022 connect to show what appears to be the outline of a huge shark, with the tail in Nova Scotia, the body along the east coast and head pointed at Florida's east coast. "You can track Breton, the white shark that made this self-portrait on the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker," the research group posted on X. Breton was the first shark tagged during OCEARCH's 2020 expedition in Nova Scotia, the group reported. At that time the adult shark was 13-foot, 3-inches long and weighed in at a whopping 1,437 pounds. Breton was named by SeaWorld, an OCEARCH partner, for the people of Cape Breton where he was tagged. Breton has traveled 46,994 miles since he was tagged, his tracker page notes. A fishing charter off Destin, Florida, encountered a 14-foot great white shark on April 10. The shark circled the boat for 20 minutes, even mouthing the back of the vessel before swimming away. 'We were on a regular fishing trip, and I looked up ... what I thought I saw in the water was a submarine, and I was waiting next for the periscope to pop out of the water,' charter boat captain Taylor Bankston said. 'But it never did ... and then the submarine turned into something that had giant teeth and a giant eyeball,' he said. Great white sharks are opportunistic and enjoy a diverse diet of fish, invertebrates, and marine mammals, NOAA Fisheries reported. Juvenile white sharks mostly eat bottom fish, smaller sharks, rays, schooling fish and squid, while larger great white sharks also eat seals and sea lions and are known to feed on whale carcasses. While great white sharks are often characterized as apex predators, meaning they top the food chain in their environment, it is not always the case. In environments where orcas, also known as killer whales, are present, they top the food chain and have been known to hunt great white sharks for their nutrient-rich livers. For example, an Orca was observed off the South African coast hunting and killing an 8-foot great white shark, eventually eviscerating it and carrying a portion of the shark's liver in its mouth. Great white sharks have an endless supply of teeth. Great white sharks have about 50 exposed teeth, with five to six rows of teeth constantly developing behind them, ready to replace any that wear down or fall out. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Great white shark makes shark 'drawing,' pings off Jacksonville Beach
USA Today
14-03-2025
- USA Today
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 Show Caption Hide Caption 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 and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Massive great white shark among several being tracked off Florida coast as spring break begins
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A non-profit organization focused on monitoring and conserving marine life is tracking several large sharks off the coast of Florida, providing valuable insights into the movements of these giant predators. OCEARCH reports that several of the sharks are great whites but remain well offshore around the Gulf Stream, off the Southeast coastline. Among the sharks being tracked are "Contender," a massive great white shark tagged earlier this year, along with "Dold" and "Danny." Generally, these marine animals stay dozens of miles off the coastline, where they search for prey during the winter months. Dold and Danny recently pinged just 18 miles apart along the edge of the Gulf Stream, east of Central Florida. "Dold and Danny, both male white sharks on the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker, last pinged just 18 miles apart, positioned along the inside edge of the Gulf Stream. With Dold about 25 miles offshore and Danny 39 miles out, both are right in the heart of what we identify as the core overwintering zone for Northwest Atlantic white sharks," an OCEARCH scientist recently stated. Largest Shark Ever Tagged By Research Group Swimming Off The Florida Coast The organization utilizes transmitter technology to monitor the sharks' movements, providing real-time updates on their locations. Contender is the largest shark tracked by the group, measuring 14 feet long and weighing more than 1,600 pounds. During the spring and summer months, the sharks typically stay far offshore, well beyond the areas frequented by beachgoers. Marine experts note that these sharks often migrate farther out to sea before heading northward to the waters off of the Northeast and Canada, where they feed on seals. The tracking system relies on pings sent by the transmitters when a shark surfaces. OCEARCH said it is able to triangulate a location when a shark surfaces for at least 90 seconds. Depending on how frequently the shark surfaces, the battery in the tracking device can last up to five years. Surfer Presumed Dead After Shark Attack Off Australian Coast Since the project began, nearly 400 sharks have been tagged, the majority of which are great whites or tiger sharks, which stay well offshore. According to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File, there were 14 unprovoked shark attacks along Florida beaches in 2024. Shark encounters in the U.S. are typically non-lethal, and most incidents involve smaller sharks, such as blacktips and bull sharks, which confuse humans for prey. Track the giant fish on OCEARCH's shark tracker at article source: Massive great white shark among several being tracked off Florida coast as spring break begins
