Posted on 06/19/2014 11:51:48 AM PDT by nickcarraway
In the past, it was hard for scientists to know much about great white sharks because they're too big to capture and study while they're alive. But scientists are figuring out more about the animals -- and this week, they've learned a shark they've named Katharine could be headed straight for the Mississippi Coast.
Katharine, a 2,300-pound, 14-foot-long great white, was tagged with a tracker off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., in August. Whenever she swims to the surface and her fin leaves the water, it transmits a signal to scientists at the nonprofit research organization Ocearch to show where she is. Early Wednesday morning, she was just south of Panama City, Fla., and heading into the northern Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi and Alabama.
"She's getting close. These sharks move 100 miles a day, no problem. She could be anywhere near the beaches in less than a day," Osearch founder Chris Fischer said Wednesday afternoon. "We've heard in the past that there's been some great whites in the Gulf, but we're really just learning that for the first time now."
A great white shark named Betsy has also made her way into the Gulf, but her tracker last "pinged" in early June near the southernmost tip of Florida. Since then, she hasn't raised her fin from the water.
"Some of the sharks come up and put their fins out of the water more often than others," Fischer said. "Katharine is a real extrovert. She likes to be at the surface, so we get very regular updates. Betsy has only come up about once a month since she's been tagged, so she's a little more shy."
Katharine is about 20 years old, and researchers aren't sure what's driving her so close to the Florida, Alabama and Mississippi coastlines.
"We're watching it unfold in real time together," Fischer said of Ocearch's shark-tracking website, which lets anyone with Internet access see where the tagged sharks were last pinged.
"We never dreamed those animals would be spending time in the waters there during this time of year," Fischer said. Scientists thought the sharks would spend summer months farther north in the Atlantic Ocean. "It really shows us how little we knew and how much we're learning right now."
Fischer said nothing has changed with the migration patterns of the sharks, it's just that scientists are now starting to figure them out.
"These sharks have been doing this for millions of years," Fischer said. "We just know for the first time.
"People shouldn't be afraid. The sharks have been making these moves forever."
Thats just a little over 4 miles an hour.
I hardly ever laugh out loud but that comment (post #1) got to me. Very humorous.
There's a considerable amount of fuel being burned to move this critter around.
Thank you.
Obviously, Bush’s fault...
Dummm, Dum. Dummm, Dum.
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