A 23 hundred pound, 14-foot long great white shark named Katherine is making her way across the Gulf of Mexico and according to experts, she may be heading to Texas.
The shark is named Katharine.
A 23 hundred pound, 14-foot long great white shark named Katharine is making her way across the Gulf of Mexico and according to experts, she may be heading to Texas.
Katharine is outfitted with an electronic tag allowing researchers to monitor her whereabouts. The most recent ping showed she was about 100 miles west of Sarasota off the Florida coast.
The research team estimates that in a week she could be swimming past the Mississippi river and another 7 days after that, Katharine may be close to the Texas coast. Katharine is one of two sharks tagged last year near Cape Cod.
The other creature named Betsy was pegged earlier in June about 120 miles west of Sanibel Island in Florida. Each time the sharks come to the surface, a signal is sent to experts at Ocearch, who are leading the tracking efforts.
Both Katharine and Betsy are giving researchers insight into the behavior of mysterious great whites. The Director of the center for shark research at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium remarked “Every track is giving us new information and going contrary to all the assumptions that we were going on. Having them in the Gulf is something we thought happened in the winter time.”
