1,600 LB Great White Shark Pings Off Coast of South Jersey

A massive, great white shark pinged off the coast of South Jersey this week, most likely on its way to warmer water for wintertime.

OCEARCH says the shark, Scot, is a 12-foot-long adult male weighing in at 1,644 pounds.

He was tagged on Sept. 8, 2021, in the waters around Ironbound Island, Nova Scotia.

Since then, he's swam 16,420 miles, according to OCEARCH.

Massive Great White Shark Passes South Jersey Coast

According to the tracker, Scot was swimming near the Hudson Canyon, about 100 miles off the coast of Atlantic City Wednesday night.

He first appeared Tuesday night just north of that spot. By Thursday morning, he was much further down the coast. Scot had traveled 214 miles in 72 hours, according to OCEARCH data.

A quick internet search shows that Scot has made this trip before at about the same time of year.

The shark was pinged in 2022 traveling past New Jersey in October as it made its way down the East Coast.

Where Scot Pinged & Where He's Going

According to NOAA, the Hudson Canyon is located about 99 miles east of the mouth of the Hudson River off the New Jersey coast.

...the canyon extends about 350 miles seaward, reaches depths of 2 to 2.5 miles, and is up to 7.5 miles wide. Hudson Canyon's grand scale and diverse structure—steep slopes, firm outcrops, diverse sediments, flux of nutrients, and areas of upwelling—make it an ecological hotspot for a vast array of marine wildlife.

OCEARCH data shows that white sharks like to 'winter' in the waters off the coast of Outer Banks, North Carolina. Who can blame them?

According to its website, OCEARCH is a "non-profit organization and a recognized world leader in generating critical scientific data related to tracking and biological studies of large apex predators such as great white sharks and other keystone marine species."

It has tagged 74 sharks in its Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study.