Great white sharks are highly migratory species in which individuals would make long migrations every year. They could migrate long distances where food resource is abundant to bulk up themselves.
On April 28 at 10:30 p.m., a 1,000-pound (453 kilograms) migrating shark was spotted off the coast of New Jersey while it was on its way north to the rich fishing grounds of Canada. The shark was first tagged in 2019, so he was detected when he reached New Jersey last month.
Ironbound on Its Way to the North
The 12.4-foot-long (3.7 meters) shark was nicknamed "Ironbound" after it was first caught on Oct. 3, 2019, near West Ironbound Island near Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, according to CNN.
The nonprofit marine research group OCEARCH, which provides open-source data about shark migration, captured and tagged the shark as part of their data collection. They fitted the apex predator with an electronic tracker, called SPOT, on its fin that pings its location to a GPS satellite whenever they break the ocean surface. It is designed to fall off after a few years.
Bob Hueter, the chief scientist at OCEARCH, told CNN that the large shark is likely around 20 years old. Even though Ironbound is not the biggest shark, the organization has encountered, since they have tagged some great white sharks as long as 17.5 feet and as heavy as 4,000 pounds, it was still an impressive shark.
Based on the tracker, Inbound has traveled approximately 13,000 miles since it was first tagged three years ago. The shark has gone back and forth between Nova Scotia and the Florida Keys several times.
On the other hand, the tracker has a bit of an error margin that does not precisely point to the shark's location. It may be off by a few feet or meters. That error bar can be the difference between one side of Long Island and the other," marine biologist George Burgess told Live Science in 2019.
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Shark Migration Explained
Great white sharks migrate for food and this is usually predicted by the location of near-shore habitats abundant with suitable mammals, like seals and sea lions, according to the Dutch Shark Society. Another reason they migrate is for breeding. They go to the same areas to give birth because they have historically produced sufficient food in safe places where juvenile sharks could flourish.
Hueter also explained that, like many great white sharks, Ironbound is also migrating to the Atlantic Ocean every year and spending time in the northern waters of Canada during the summer season and going as far south as the eastern Gulf of Mexico during the winter season.
In terms of distance, sharks' migration patterns depend on their species.
Great white sharks migrate as far as 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) a year or at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) per day between the California coast and the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, coastal pelagic sharks only travel 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) per year during migration season.
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