Great white shark tracked by OCEARCH pings off Outer Banks

DUCK, N.C. (WNCN) — A great white shark tagged and tracked by the nonprofit research organization OCEARCH recently surfaced in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

According to OCEARCH data , a 12.3-foot long, 1,644 pound adult male white shark named Scot last pinged in the waters off Bodie Island at 10:56 p.m. Friday. He started pinging in the area shortly after 10:30 a.m. Friday and surfaced several times, with the last one coming late at night.

Prior to that, Scot’s last ping was around noon on April 13 offshore from St. Augustine, Florida. OCEARCH data also shows the shark’s last visit to North Carolina waters was on November 25, 2023, when he surfaced southeast of Southport.

A prolific pinger , Scot has been tracked since September 8, 2021, when he was tagged off Ironbound Island, Nova Scotia. His travels over the last few years have mostly been up and down the eastern seaboard of North America with a couple of treks into the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Cuba in 2022 and 2023.

According to OCEARCH, Scot was the first great white shark sampled during 2021’s Expedition Nova Scotia and was the 74th overall that the group tagged, sampled and released in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Scot was named by OCEARCH’s partners at SeaWorld and was named after the people of Nova Scotia.

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