2 great white sharks detected along SC coast and a third could join them. Check them out
Great white sharks have been filling South Carolina waters lately and with good reason, some scientists say.
Two young great white sharks were detected in recent days cruising alongside South Carolina, while a third was reported around the same time near the border with North Carolina. The third is expected to continue moving south like the other two — following an annual migration pattern of great whites traveling to warmer waters for the winter months, some researchers report.
A 9-foot, 715-pound, juvenile male great white shark named Tancook pinged along the South Carolina coast on Nov. 8, according to OCEARCH, a nonprofit research organization.
The research group reported that a 10.17-foot, 697-pound juvenile female great white named Hali last pinged outside of the state a day earlier on Nov. 7.
The third great white, a 9.9-foot, 715-pound juvenile female named Crystal, also pinged on Nov. 7.
To view their travels or the migrations of other sharks, click here.
Through the tagging of great whites, OCEARCH has shown the predators make “predictable annual migrations between the northern and southern parts of their range, which stretches from Newfoundland to the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” according to a September report by the organization and other researchers. “The sharks spend summer and fall primarily in coastal waters off New England and Atlantic Canada, feeding on high-calorie prey such as seals, before heading back south to warmer winter waters off the southeast U.S. from South Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico.”
In October, a 341-pound, nearly 11-foot female shark named Andromache pinged along the South Carolina coast and was the first tracked great white to transition south for the season this year, OCEARCH reported.
As of Nov. 7, the same shark was detected outside of Miami.
This story was originally published November 9, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
