“There are solely a handful of sharks which were tracked west of the Mississippi”
Researchers caught LeeBeth and tagged her with a satellite tv for pc tracker and a short lived digicam. {Photograph} by Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
A 14-foot feminine white shark with a monitoring tag that biologists nicknamed “LeeBeth” has traveled over 2,000 miles since Dec. 8, from the waters off the coast of Hilton Head Island in South Carolina to Matamoros, Mexico, close to the Texas border on the Gulf Coast. Her journey to the waters close to the border marked the farthest into the Gulf of Mexico biologists have ever tracked a white shark.
Researchers are in a position to make use of LeeBeth’s journey as proof that the Gulf of Mexico may help extra white sharks than beforehand thought.
“We don’t know what number of white sharks journey that far west, but it surely’s indication they do,” Atlantic White Shark Conservancy senior scientist Megan Winton informed NBC Boston. “There are solely a handful of sharks which were tracked west of the Mississippi.”
LeeBeth, who tips the scales at round 2,600 kilos, is an particularly straightforward shark to trace due to how continuously she breaches the water’s floor. When she does so for longer than 45 seconds, the tracker on her dorsal fin connects with overhead satellites that ping AWSC researchers. It was a giant deal when she pinged off the coast of South Padre Island Nationwide Seashore, simply north of the worldwide border. This was already farther than any nice white had each dipped into the Gulf. However she saved working south after that.
A map of her journey exhibits dozens of pings. She hugged the east coast of Florida earlier than wrapping across the southern tip. Then she stayed a methods off shore alongside the west coast. She returned nearer to land once more on Alabama’s sliver of shoreline earlier than swerving far out round New Orleans. Then she checked again in very near Padre Island, and in deeper ocean close to Matamoros. She has since swum back north, pinging close to Sabine Cross on the Texas-Louisiana Coast Thursday.
Capt. Chip Michalove, proprietor of Outcast Sport Fishing and an AWSC researcher, tagged LeeBeth.
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“Lined in scars from chewing on seals, she swam off with a satellite tv for pc spot tag that you simply’ll have the ability to monitor on the Sharktivity app, a [satellite] tag that’ll detach in 8 months, and THE FIRST CAMERA TAG EVER PUT ON A SHARK IN SC,” Michalove wrote in a Fb submit on Dec. 9. “This cam tag is recording her each day routine and can detach shortly. Megan Winton from Atlantic White Shark Conservancy got here all the best way from Cape Cod to connect it.”
AWSC launched footage from the digicam in February.
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“Not solely one of many greatest sharks we’ve caught, however she’s the best-pinging shark as nicely,” Michalove informed NBC Boston. “We positively hit a house run with [her].”
