Newly tagged great white shark ‘Shaw’ cruises near N.J.

Years after Mary Lee appeared, and following the brief blip of Miss May in July, there’s a new great white shark to track.

His name is Shaw, and he was tagged by OCEARCH, a marine research organization, off Nova Scotia on Oct. 1. OCEARCH recently concluded a white shark research expedition in that area. Scientists tagged, examined and collected biological samples from 11 white sharks.

“This data will contribute toward our understanding of the biology and physiology of white sharks in the Northwest Atlantic,” said Dr. Lisa Hoopes, director of research, conservation, and nutrition at Georgia Aquarium. Hoopes was also Expedition Nova Scotia’s chief scientist for the second half of the trip.

Just finished up our last day of fishing here on #ExpeditionNovaScotia with a bang! Shark number 11 of the trip, another male, just safely swam off the lift! A name and more details to come soon. pic.twitter.com/jY17N2O0lF

• WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) October 4, 2019

Shaw is named after Mike Shaw, a fish curator at SeaWorld San Diego for over 40 years and the initiator of white shark research at SeaWorld.

Tracked via GIS, the 10-foot, 3-inch 564-pound sub-adult male shark pinged around 50 miles off Long Beach Island on Monday. Its current location is unknown.

Since being tagged early this month, Shaw has cruised southwestward, passing well offshore from New England before nearing the coast near New Jersey.

Shaw is the latest tracked great white shark near New Jersey, beginning with the 16-foot, 3,456-pound Mary Lee, who first pinged off New Jersey in 2015. Her signal was lost in 2017.