Two great white sharks spotted along the SC coast. See for yourself
A couple of great white sharks have been enjoying South Carolina waters lately.
Two young great white sharks were detected in recent days swimming along the South Carolina coastline after spending some time by Georgia. To follow the paths of the two sharks and several others being researched in the Atlantic ocean, click here.
An 8.9-foot, 393-pound juvenile male great white shark named Frosty pinged by the South Carolina coast on Monday, according to OCEARCH. The research group noted that the shark had last pinged by the Georgia coast on Dec. 12.
Frosty is OCEARCH’s 88th shark sampled, tagged and released in the western north Atlantic and the fourth during the research group’s Expedition Southbound 2022.
“We embarked on Expedition Southbound to learn more about these animals as they begin their winter residency and we named this shark Frosty to celebrate this winter season,” the OCEARCH website states.
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.”
The second great white shark recently detected is named Simon as is an 8.11-foot, 434-pound juvenile male shark. The shark most recently pinged by South Carolina on Jan. 6. He previously pinged on Dec. 5 by Georgia.
Simon is also part of OCEARCH’s Expedition Southbound and was named after St. Simon’s Island in Georgia, near where researchers first met him.
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
