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After lingering off the Volusia County coast for about a month, Katharine, a 2,300-pound great white shark, moved north this week, but only to Flagler County.
The great white shark wears a satellite tag that “pings” her location when her dorsal fin breaks the water. She was tagged off Cape Cod last August by researchers with OCEARCH, a non-profit organization studying sharks.
Katharine arrived off the Flagler County coast on December 28 and she has lingered anywhere from 2 to 40 miles offshore off Volusia and Flagler counties and the northern tip of Brevard County ever since, according to the tracking map provided by OCEARCH on its website. Officials with the Volusia County Beach Safety and Ocean Rescue said they have monitored her progress, along with others who use the research organization’s web page or phone app to watch its tagged sharks moving all over the world.
On Thursday, the satellite map shows that Katharine pinged more than 40 miles offshore at 5:14 a.m. and then headed toward shore, moving due west before stopping a couple miles offshore. According to the tracking map, she pinged there at 5:32 a.m., just 18 minutes later. While scientists working with OCEARCH have been impressed by how fast the sharks move, swimming over 100 mph would be impossible, said Fiona Marcelino, outreach coordinator for OCEARCH.
She said from time to time, anomalies appear in the satellite data, including the time stamp. “The cause of an anomaly can range from fin duration (out of the water) to simply a transmission or data processing glitch,” said Marcelino.
On Thursday and Friday, Katharine appeared to be swimming a north-south pattern off the coast.
A research team from OCEARCH is on expedition this month in the Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos Islands. They’ve tagged three great white sharks, whose “pings” are already being recorded on the website.
Meanwhile, to the north, Genie, a second great white shark tagged off Cape Cod in the summer of 2012, also has been moving south and pinged this week near Fernandina Beach.
By Dinah Voyles Pulver
dinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com
