Great White Sharks Katharine And Genie Are Causing A Stir Off The North Carolina Coast
A pair of great white sharks have settled in off the North Carolina coast, swimming just off Pamlico sound as the summer beach season looms.
Both Genie and Katharine are large, fully grown predators, each sporting a tag on their dorsal fin thanks to research group Ocearch. As WTKR points out, these tags send a signal to satellites each time the sharks’ fins break the surface, allowing researchers to document the great whites’ movements. Katharine has long been a darling of social media, and while Genie is less well known, both of the sharks have found their way to the North Carolina coast over the last few weeks.
Silent for six days: Where is @Shark_Katharine swimming now? @OCEARCH @ChrisOCEARCH #Brevard @Florida_Today pic.twitter.com/ytHgbEHyOs
— Rick Neale (@RickNeale1) April 9, 2015
On Thursday morning, around 3:30 a.m., Genie’s tag reported that the shark had entered Pimlico Sound. Nearly 2,300 pounds and measuring 14-feet-long, Genie is hardly the first white shark to explore the area in recent months. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Katharine made a notable stop in the region during her southward migration last December. Setting out from Cape Cod and heading towards Florida, the white shark made a brief visit to the area, entering Pamlico Sound herself and approaching the mouth of the Pamlico River.
Katharine eventually journeyed as far south as New Smyrna Beach, confounding observers who thought she may venture into the Gulf of Mexico, as she did the previous winter. The last few months have seen the white shark remaining in a coastal pattern off the southern states, exploring areas of the continental shelf that other large sharks call home. As Pilot Online notes, Katharine has now made her way back to the region surrounding Kill Devil Hills, pinging most recently from just off Nags Head.
Some Great #Sharks are Enjoying Cape and Islands http://t.co/8NuVAzNifk @RockStarLydia @Shark_Katharine @A_WhiteShark pic.twitter.com/ZL4lLaM1u6
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) March 21, 2015
While Genie moved into North Carolina waters on April 8, Katharine has been conspicuously absent from Ocearch’s tracker since April 3. At that time, Genie was swimming off the New Jersey coast before she tracked along the edge of the continental shelf to join Katharine at Pamlico.
While Katharine’s current whereabouts are anyone’s guess, Genie’s presence is likely evidence that the white shark is swimming safely somewhere in the region. Although little is known about the territorial nature of great whites, researchers are aware that the death of a white shark causes a reaction in others of the species, leading them to avoid the scene of a fatality. Earlier this year, a pod of killer whales hunted and devoured a white shark near Australia, an action that caused all other great whites in the region to flee.
[Photo by Ryan Pierse/ Getty Images]
