Great White Shark Being Tracked Off the Coast of Virginia

27 Oct 2016

Meet Miss Costa. She’s a 12 and a half long Great White Shark that weighs almost 1700 pounds. Now scientists have finally got their chance to tag her with a GPS tracking device in order to track her living and feeding habits.

It was September 22 in Nantucket, Massachusetts off the coast that they spotted her and tagged her.  Shortly after that on Sunday, she was tracked swimming close to the surface east of the Virginia-North Carolina line just off the coast.

This is not a rare practice either since it isn’t unusual in the wintertime for white sharks to swim close to the coast in the Carolina area.

She gets her name by OCEARCH in honor of Costa Sunglasses who partner with them. Miss Costa will give a better understanding of the physiology, behavior and ecology of the North Atlantic Great Whites.

GPS tracking allows scientists to track her movements and blood, mucus and parasite sampling health assessments allow them to determine what type of threats this specie faces and what needs to be done in order to protect them.

OCEARCH and Costa Sunglasses came together in 2012 to help scientists study these sharks in the North Atlantic area. Other tagged Great Whites are Katharine, Mary Lee and Lydia.

The GPS trackers are tagged to the dorsal fin of Miss Costa to provide real time data.

The scientists use a boat that is 126 feet long and a hydraulic lift to gain access to the Great Whites for about 15 minutes so they can get their genetic sampling and place the tracking device on their fins.

Each time the shark gets close to the surface, the transmitter signals a satellite that enables the scientists to see the exact location of the shark in real time.

The goal of the study is to determine the important times and places in the shark’s life history. Scientists are looking to find out where and when the sharks feed, reproduce and give birth which will ultimately help them to sustain and protect them.

Each time Miss Costa’s fin surfaces, her location is transmitted and anyone can track her movements free online by visiting the Global Shark Tracker. Interested people can also download the Global Shark Tracker App for Android and Apple platforms.


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