Great White Shark returns to seek out real estate in Southport, NC
A few sharks have been tagged near Southport, NC recently! Two Carcharodon carcharias (ie. Great White Shark) named Mary Lee and Genie were in our area a few weeks ago. Mary Lee came back for a visit since she liked it so much! She is a 16 foot shark and weighs 3456 pounds. She was originally tagged in September of this year in Cape Cod. She was named after one of the tagger’s mothers, now that’s an honor.
Great White Sharks are being hunted to extinction because they are so feared by the average person. A group of scientists with OCEARCH are trying to change that. Their goal is to support leaders in the research field to facilitate studies to obtain new data on sharks in the areas of biology, health, life history and migration. OCEARCH is hoping that with this new information, shark conservation will be elevated to a higher level across the world.
Sharks have a major effect on all levels of the ecosystem. They play a crucial role in maintaining the balance in the oceans. Often misrepresented as man-hunters in movies, they have gotten a very bad reputation in the past decades. In the effort to change the perception from fear to fascination, OCEARCH has developed a website that shares some of the data they collect and makes it possible to track the sharks they are researching.
The sharks are caught and tagged with tracking systems that are attached to the fin. Through the equipment, the devices send “pings” which are recorded and make it possible to track the migration of the shark. Every time the shark surfaces for long enough, a ping is recorded. The length of the surfacing will determine the accuracy of the ping. The best pings are within 250 of the actual shark. The pings are timed and dated on the website. Since the pings are only recordable when the shark breaks the surface for a certain amount of time, time tables can range from a few pings a day to nothing for a over a week. Another type of tag on the shark is a SPOT (Smart Position and Temperature Tag). It records things like temperature, salinity, and depth. Special features allow it to turn off when submerged to save battery life. OCEARCH continues to work for better shark managment and conservation.
Interesting facts about the Great White Shark
Great Whites usually cruise at 5 miles per hour, but when they are hunting can reach speeds of up to 35 miles an hour. They try to avoid fighting for food. When there is only enough food for one, they have a tail-slapping contest. The sharks swim past each other, each slapping the surface of the water with their tails, and often directing the spray toward the other shark. The one who gets the meal is the shark that delivers the most tail slaps. In one year, a single Great White consumes about 11 tons of food. They also lose more than one thousand teeth in their lifetime. Despite the name, the Great White Shark is not all white. The shark’s back may be dark blue, gray, brown or black. They breed around 20 years old and only live for about 25 years. The biggest Great White Shark ever caught was off Prince Edward Island in 1993. It was 20 feet long.
Please leave a comment if you have seen any sharks in our area of North Carolina!
