INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Katharine The Great White Shark Departs Outer Banks, Heads For Bermuda

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 03:03 PST, Aug 7, 2015

Katharine the great white shark looks set to forgo a trip to Cape Cod this summer, as the famed animal has departed the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a course set to take her to Bermuda.

Over the past few months, Katharine has lingered in southern waters while a number of her fellow white sharks have moved into the area around Cape Cod for the summer. As the Inquisitr has recently reported, Katharine has opted to call North Carolina her temporary home, signaling from just off the Outer Banks, where she has been steadily cruising for some time.

Now, however, the shark has departed the region in a decisive way, striking out across the continental shelf and into the open Atlantic. On August 3, Katharine crossed the edge of the shelf, moving into deeper water even as she continued to signal from the surface. On August 5, she made a course correction, turning slightly southward toward Bermuda. Katharine has currently covered roughly a third of the distance between North Carolina and the island.

The move is unusual for the great white, which generally sticks to a decisive coastal pattern, as Ocearch founder Chris Fischer told Space Coast Daily earlier this year.

“All these sharks are different. Katharine stands out because she constantly comes up finning, which means she likes to spend a lot of time on or near the surface. She is so coastal, almost living on the beaches, as well. It makes her somewhat of a media darling as she passes by.”

While Katharine rarely travels into open water, she isn’t the only Ocearch shark to venture off the east coast in the direction of Bermuda. Mary Lee, another great white tracked by the non-profit, has previously visited the island, though she approached it from farther north. Earlier this year, Mary Lee found herself at the middle of a social media frenzy when she swam past the New Jersey coastline before returning south. Since then, she has remained off the coast of Georgia, relatively close to Katharine, as the Savannah Morning News reports.

Though her course change seems abrupt, Katharine has moved decisively in the past when traveling between regions. Last year, the white shark lingered in Cape Cod until early December, surprising researchers, until she abruptly turned south, next surfacing in Pamlico Sound.

Only time will tell where Katharine will travel next and whether she will continue toward Bermuda, but it looks increasingly likely that researchers in Cape Cod may not see this particular great white shark for some time.

[Image: Ocearch via Twitter]

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