As the summer gets underway, the beaches are starting to fill up all across the country. But that warm water isn’t just attractive to tourists looking for fun in the sun, even in the more northern coasts of the U.S.
OCEARCH, a nonprofit organization that specializes in researching shark migration, among other marine research pursuits, has tracked four great whites, along with a number of other sharks, all the way to the Big Apple and the Jersey Shore.
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The group puts electronic trackers on the sharks it monitors, and those monitors “ping” whenever each shark breaks the water’s surface.
All four sharks that have made their way to the area are juveniles.
Simon (9 feet long, 434 pounds) pinged just off Fire Island on May 2. Jekyll (8 feet 8 inches, 395 pounds) pinged near Long Island on May 15.
Keji (over 9 ½ feet long, 600 pounds) joined Jekyll on May 17, according to the trackers. Frosty (9 feet 2 inches, 393 pounds) was tracked to the Rhode Island coast on May 21.
All four make the trip north each year from the Florida Keys, according to OCEARCH’s records, in search of “very rich feeding grounds” along the eastern shores of the northern U.S. and Canada.
And it's not just great whites making the trip. A number of other sharks can be seen off the coasts of the original 13 colonies by checking out the OCEARCH shark tracker.
So if you’re venturing into the water at some of the country’s northernmost sandy outposts, just keep your eyes peeled for fellow swimmers who might be DTF… down to feed.
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