Featured Image Credit: Ocearch.org
Earlier this week, the Ocearch team spotted the newest member of their tracking line-up off the Virgina-North Carolina coast. Miss Costa is a juvenile white shark that measures almost 12.5 feet and weighs close to 1700 lbs. This not so little lady was first spotted and tagged off the Nantucket coast in late September.
Don’t be too surprised by this news! It’s pretty common for sharks to take a detour and feed off the coast of the Carolinas. Robert Hueter, who is one of Ocearch’s lead scientists, thinks the female white shark is probably on her way to Florida for the winter.
Using a 38-meter boat that’s fitted with a hydraulic lift, the researchers gained close access to Miss Costa. After drawing blood samples for genetic testing, the team quickly fitted her dorsal fin with a GPS tracker and then let her go on her merry way. The tracker will collect data for close to five years.
Miss Costa’s welcome to the family is definitely a warm one because she’s joining dozens of other sharks that also contribute important data to Ocearch’s mission. Since their founding in the mid-2000s, the team of scientists has tagged over 300 sharks. By monitoring when the sharks surface and their real-time location, the researchers hope to learn more about their feeding and mating habits. More importantly, it is crucial for Ocearch to gain more knowledge about their habitats so they can better protect it.
Go ahead girl. Just keep doing your thing Miss Costa! You can follow her on the Ocearch website.