INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Great White Shark: 2,300-Pound Katharine Returns To Florida For Winter

By Effie Orfanides
Published on: 14:43 PST, Jan 27, 2015

A great white shark known to travel the east coast throughout the year has reappeared in Florida. According to Fox News, Katharine, a 2,300 pound female shark, sent off a radar ping off the Florida coast after spending months in Cape Cod. The mammal is one of the largest tagged sharks, and her migratory patterns have been tracked since 2013.

“She headed along the coasts of the Carolinas and appeared near the border of Georgia and Florida on Friday. The long journey is no big deal to Katharine, who has traveled some 10,000 miles since being tagged.”

It appears as though the great white shark is heading back to Volusia and Flagler counties, where she has spent time during the winter months in years past. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Katharine has come about four miles from a Florida beach in the past, and many think that she is going to make a close pass or two in the next couple of months.

“Over about six weeks last year, she swam around South Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico before returning to the Atlantic and swimming far out off the Continental Shelf east of South Carolina, according to Ocearch,” The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

According to UPI, Katharine the great white shark is the “most popular” shark on the internet. Perhaps that has to do with her enormous size, or maybe it’s the fact that she has been closely tracked for the past two years, which is just plain cool to so many people. There are a total of 47 sharks tracked by Ocearch, but every time Katharine sends a ping, it makes news.

Ocearch is conducting “unprecedented research” on these incredible sharks, and so much is being learned based on the pings these sharks transmit.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Katharine was pinging close to another shark named Mary Lee, who has also spent a good amount of time in Cape Cod. Katharine didn’t stick around too long, however, and headed further south. This is something that isn’t uncommon, but it’s definitely interesting to see how many areas these sharks visit, how frequently, and during which months.

Where do you think Katharine will go next?

[Photo courtesy of My Fox 8]

Share this article: Great White Shark: 2,300-Pound Katharine Returns To Florida For Winter
sharks great white shark
More from Inquisitr