Four Great White Sharks have been spotted off the coast of NY, NJY and RI in May
- Great white sharks are known to feed in the waters around Canada and the US.
- Trackers from OCEARCH recently detected 4 great whites near New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
- Jekyll is a 8-foot-8-inch male juvenile who weighs just 400 pounds.
Memorial Day is unofficially the start of summer. Millions of people go to the beach every year for a long, fun weekend, complete with fireworks, barbecues and lots of sun.
This weekend, there’s more than one migration happening.
OCEARCH is a non-profit organization that conducts marine research. It recently announced on its website, as part of an annual trip to Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, four great whites sharks had made their way up the coasts of New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
OCEARCH began tracking, tagging and capturing great whites in 2007 to better understand their migratory patterns. The apex sharks travel north every summer from their feeding grounds in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas to find warmer waters and prey such as grey seals and Tuna.
Sharks are already in the water off the most popular beaches in America.
These great-white sharks have travelled for thousands of miles
The OCEARCH Tracker has determined that a juvenile great-white male nicknamed Jekyll, traveled 1,595 kilometers in 103 day from Georgia to Atlantic City where his tracker pinpointed his location on 15th May. Jekyll is named after the Georgia island where he first was tagged by the OCEARCH team. He measures just 8 feet 8 inches and weighs only 395 lbs.
Keiji is a juvenile male great white that winters in Gulf of Mexico, but was seen enjoying the waters of Long Island May 17th. Keiji, who is 9 feet 7 inch long and weighs only 578 pounds has traveled 7,697 miles over the last year.
Simon, a male juvenile from Florida, traveled 1,520 kilometers in the past 106 days to join the revelers on Fire Island, May 2nd. His beach body measures 9 feet and 6 inches, weighing in at 434 pounds.
Frosty is a juvenile male from Jacksonville, FL who, as of the 21st of May, has reached the coast of Rhode Island. Frosty is only 9 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 393 pounds.
Shark attacks are rare, even though the presence of such mammoths near the busy beaches of Memorial Day could cause some to pause.
Data from the Florida Museum of Natural History’s 2022 Shark Attack Report notes that there were just nine shark-related fatalities around the world last year, and only 57 confirmed cases of unprovoked shark attacks — below the 5-year average of 70 attacks a year.