Biggest Great White Shark in Atlantic Ocean Shows Up Near Tourist Hot Spot
The largest ever recorded great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean was spotted close to a popular North Carolina tourist spot earlier this week.
"Contender," a 14-foot-long beast, was first tagged by marine biologists from the non-profit group OCEARCH in January about 45 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Scientists placed a tracking beacon on the shark's dorsal fin to research its feeding habits and gain more insight into the life of a shark.
Contender showed up this past week near the North Carolina hot spot of Pamlico Sound, located near the Outer Banks. A view of the organization's website shows the shark's most recent "ping" occurring on June 7th in water that is less than 26 feet deep.
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THE OCEAN BELONGS TO SHARKS, NOT HUMANS
As someone who just rewatched Jaws, I can say that hanging on the land sounds pretty enticing these days if I was living in the OBX.
The estimated 1,600-pound shark may want to check out what the area's like, but some locals on social media aren't willing to meet him just yet.
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"Well… that ruins my weekend plans just a smidge," one person tweeted. "This one gives me "Jaws" vibes," another wrote.
Uh, ya think?
Despite the scary optics, researchers are trying to calm down local residents' nerves by saying that this is all part of Mother Nature's annual intentions.
"This time of year, white sharks are starting their late spring/early summer migration, moving from their southern overwintering area to their summer/fall foraging areas in the northeastern U.S. and Atlantic Canada," said Dr. Harley Newton, OCEARCH's chief scientist. "We often see the sharks on our global shark tracker spend a period of time off the Outer Banks right before they move north, which is what the white shark ‘Contender’ appears to be doing."
Hey Doc… you know that saying "it's better off not knowing?" Yeah, that's 100% true in this situation. Knowing that there's a massive number of great sharks the average person can't see just chilling not too far away isn't something everyone wants to think about every time they take a dip into the Atlantic on a hot summer day.
Just look at this video of a great white shark that perfectly blends into the water just a few feet away before it suddenly appears with its massive teeth on the side of a boat.
Yeah, I'm good everyone, I'll just stay on the sand.
As I've long said, there are two things you can't negotiate with in life: a tornado or a shark.