Katharine the shark surfaces off South Carolina, proving OCEARCH tracker battery still working
Maureen KenyonShe had us all fooled.
After another long silence, Katharine, the 2,300-pound white shark tagged Aug. 20, 2013, by research and advocacy group OCEARCH, pinged Friday night way off South Carolina's coast.
The last time Katharine surfaced, according to the tracking device attached to her dorsal fin, was Feb. 25 near the Bahamas.
Most tracker batteries run out after five years, according to Chris Fischer, founding chairman and expedition leader at OCEARCH.
Katharine's battery will be six years old in August.
"Of all the sharks we've tagged, she is, by far, the closest thing we have to a Floridian," Fischer said in February. "It's interesting to see how the people of Florida have fallen in love with this particular shark."
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In late February, white sharks tagged by OCEARCH had a "pinging party" up and down Florida's east coast.
Besides Katharine, Miss May, OCEARCH's newest white shark, "pinged" eight times Feb. 25. Miss May was tagged Feb. 15 off Mayport, Florida, and she is 10 feet long and weighs about 800 pounds.
Miss Costa, another frequent visitor to waters off the Treasure and Space coasts, surfaced around Feb, 26 near the Bahamas. It was her first surface since Jan. 28 when her last recorded ping was near Jacksonville. Miss Costa was more than 12 feet long and weighed 1,668 pounds when she was tagged Sept. 23, 2016.
More:Katharine the Shark surfaces near North Carolina, after being silent since January
More:Like Katharine, these OCEARCH sharks love Florida's coast
On May 5, Port St. Lucie anglers Michael Bramhall, Roy Lowe, Ron Buchanon and Jared Buchanon spotted a white shark they believe was about 12 to 14 feet long near the Fort Pierce Inlet.
It's not unusual to see white sharks in Treasure Coast waters, however, according to outdoors writer Ed Killer, what gave Bramhall and the other men pause was the place where they encountered the big shark.
"It was in only about 72 feet of water, or about five miles from the inlet," Bramhall told Killer. "It wasn't far from some spots where we lobster dive in the summer. That made us think."
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In February, free divers encountered an 11-foot white shark in Jupiter.
Amber and Tommy Allore, of Stuart, and their friends Kristi Kartrude, Rodman Leas, Christian Daehler and Eric Shearouse, were surprised to see a great white shark swimming in about 60 to 70 feet of water near one of their favorite spearfishing spots.
On Twitter, follow Katharine at @Shark_Katharine and OCEARCH at @ocearch.
Great white sharks
- Ocean’s most feared predator
- Can grow to more than 21 feet long
- Can weigh more than 2,500 pounds
- Feed mainly on large sea mammals, such as seals, sea lions and dead whales
- Have a bite force of 4,000 pounds
- Live mostly in waters between 54 and 75 degrees
- Are protected from harvest by Florida and federal law
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More:OCEARCH great white shark fishing adventure helped allay some fears 'Jaws' ingrained in me
Maureen Kenyon is TCPalm's trends reporter, keeping Treasure Coast residents updated on hot topics and happenings. Do you have a story to tell? Want to start a conversation? Send an email to maureen.kenyon@tcpalm.com, call 772-221-4249 or follow her on Twitter @_MaureenKenyon_.