Key West, Florida - Great white sharks are moving to Florida for the winter. A research group, OCEARCH, says the annual migration to warmer waters off the Florida and Carolinas coasts is underway. The Palm Beach Post reports that eight white sharks tagged by the Utah-based research group were spotted from New Jersey to Florida in the last week. Three other sharks that had been tagged were detected Wednesday in waters on North Carolina beaches, and two more sharks —Helena and the 2,076-pound Unama’ki —made their presence known with toothy grins just west of Key West in September. Unama’ki had been tagged off Nova Scotia in September. She’s a big girl —some 15-feet, 5-inches. It’s not unusual for great whites to call southern waters home during winter and sightings are common near popular fishing and diving spots in Florida through spring.
A massive great white shark that weighs over 2,000 pounds made its way from Nova Scotia, where it was tagged, down to the Florida Keys in just over a month. According to OCEARCH, a nonprofit research organization that tags sharks to keep track of their movement and activity, the 15-foot-5-inch adult female "pinged" just off the coast of Key West on Saturday morning. She's been named Unama'ki, a term meaning "land of the fog" in the language of the indigenous Mi'kmaq people of Nova Scotia. OCEARCH stated on its website that it hopes Unama'ki will lead them to the site where she gives birth, exposing a new white shark nursery. To read more on this story, click here: Meet Unama'ki, the 2,000-Pound Great White Shark Who Reached the Keys
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White sharks are becoming increasingly popular off the Cape Cod, with nine confirmed great white shark sightings in the past two days, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. What's even more rare is a white shark breaching or jumping above the surface, like we see in the video of Dr. Greg Skomal's close encounter. Skomal is a well-known shark expert who with other researchers from The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, was on a trip to tag the great whites on Monday when the shark took them by surprise in the waters off Wellfleet. The great white shark leaped right out of the water with its jaws wide open, coming inches from Skomal's feet. The conservancy says it is incredibly rare to see sharks breach like that because it requires so much energy. As sharks continue to pop up in the waters off the Cape, Skomal tagged his eighth shark of the year about a quarter mile off Monomoy Island. Researchers say the video is an important reminder to stay vigilant in the waters.
