Katharine, a great white shark that has been tracked since 2013, is giving off her location again. The lastest ping came Nov. 7 from off the Virgina coast, ocean researchers based at Jacksonville University said.
She’s traveled more than 37,000 miles since being tagged, including trips to Florida.
“This is a record for our NW Atlantic SPOT-tags that normally only send white shark data to us for about five years." said researcher Bryan Franks of JU on Ocearch’s Facebook page.
Ocearch, which has a cooperative partnership with JU and whose research vessel is home ported at the university, said Katharine's pattern of movements match those of a reproductively mature female.
“Although we were not able to confirm pups with the ultrasound then, her tracks over the past seven years up and down the coast from Cape Cod to Florida and with long forays to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the offshore Atlantic, may cover the movements of two or three cycles of pregnancy and birth of her pups,” Ocearch said on Facebook.
Katharine was tagged on August 20, 2013, in Cape Cod, Mass. She’s 14 feet, 2 inches long and weighs about 2,300 pounds.
Follow along with Katharine’s adventures.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
