SARASOTA – Snowbirds aren’t the only ones coming down for the season. Shark experts say great white sharks are moving to Florida for warmer temperatures as well. Is this normal? Director of Marine Biology Research Center at New College, Dr. Jayne Gardiner, says it is.
“It’s very normal for us to have white sharks both off the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf during our winter months,” Dr. Jayne Gardiner said. “And with tagging technologies and these tracking projects, we’re starting to find out more and more about how far these animals move and the timing of when they’re spending time in our waters.”
OCEARCH, a research group, says the annual migration to warmer waters off the Florida and Carolinas coasts has begun. In the past week, eight white sharks surfaced along the shores of Florida.
With the new technology, you can track tagged sharks on OCEARCH’s, website. The latest tracking on the great white named Unama’ki, shows she was in the Gulf of Mexico on November 13. She is about 15-feet, 5 inches. In September, she was tagged off of Nova Scotia.
If you do go into the deep sea, Dr. Gardiner encourages you to take natural precautions.
“It’s generally good advice if you’re getting in the water to avoid having shiny things; jewelry, watch faces, things like that in the water,” Dr. Gardiner said. “Although, honestly, I would worry more about a barracuda being attracted to that than sharks in general.”
And, Dr. Gardiner says the chances of getting bit are slim.
“You are far more likely to get hit by lightning on the beach than to be bitten by a shark,” Dr. Gardiner said.
To track more sharks that have been tagged near Southwest Florida and all over the world, visit Ocearch.org.
And, if you find any sharks in the area, snap a picture, take a video and send it our way at news@snntv.com.
