Katharine, a great white shark tagged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, last year, has returned to the same coastline where she first encountered OCEARCH researchers, after a summer sojourn along the Gulf coast.
Earlier this month, Katharine surfaced off Atlantic City. On September 20, the great white’s fin broke the water, sending a “ping” to researchers who pinpointed her location, roughly 60 miles east of Cape Charles. The following day, September 21, Katharine popped up once again, this time about three miles east of Assateague in the Atlantic.
On the night of September 25, just over a year and a month after she was tagged by OCEARCH, Katharine surfaced off the coast of Montauk, headed for Cape Cod.
Researchers fitted Katharine with a radio tag that alerts them every time the great white’s dorsal fin breaks the surface, according to Delmarva Now . The tag connects to a satellite, relaying the shark’s location to scientists, who are then able to track the animal’s movements. OCEARCH currently monitors over a hundred sharks worldwide, posting their locations on its website.
This Ocearch shark tracker is cool. Great White named “Katharine” is the one to watch for on the East Coast. pic.twitter.com/vQ5owe6z0T
— Bill Stephens (@two4onebill) September 26, 2014
As Space Coast Daily notes, Katharine was named after Katharine Lee Bates, a songwriter and native of Cape Cod, best known for her poem and song “America the Beautiful.” Katharine was tagged by OCEARCH on August 19, 2013, and has since captivated shark lovers the world over, who have followed her journey online and through social media.
Lounging In #GulfOfMexico , Katharine The Great White Shark Might Stay Away From #Texas http://t.co/KR6zKFBF9z pic.twitter.com/iLg4tFKsX3
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) June 26, 2014
During the past year, Katharine’s fans have been able to track her as she headed south, rounding the tip of Florida and moving into the Gulf of Mexico. As The Inquisitr previously noted, Katharine sojourned in the Gulf, swimming off the shores of Texas in June, before reversing her course and heading North along the Eastern Seaboard.
Katharine is returning to a Cape that has experienced a tourism boom thanks to the number of great white sharks spotted over this past summer. Drawn by a healthy population of seals, great whites were spotted numerous times off the Massachusetts coast, and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy was able to tag more than ten new individuals.
The high population of great whites in the area led to several notable interactions with humans, although few attacks were reported. Earlier this month, however, a great white struck two kayakers of the coast of Plymouth. The pair were thrown from their boats, yet suffered no other injuries.
Katharine, along with her fellow great whites, can be tracked at OCEARCH .
[Image: OCEARCH via USA Today ]