A 16-foot-long great white shark was tracked over the holiday weekend off the Delaware coast, experts said, and she has been seen recently in the waters off Chincoteague and Assateague islands in Virginia and Maryland.
Ocearch.org, a shark research organization, tracked the shark — which has been named Mary Lee — on Sunday within two miles of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Del.
Mary Lee, who weighs about 3,500 pounds, was also later spotted that day along the Cape May, N.J., shore. And like any popular shark these days, she has her own Twitter handle.
Ocearch has tracked about 300 sharks over the years. It has been tracking Mary Lee since she was tagged in 2012 with a GPS-like tracking device. When one of their tagged sharks is spotted, they refer to it as a “ping.”
Mary Lee has been tracked several times over the years along the East Coast. Last week, the shark had a ping along Assateague Island and another near Chincoteague.
Other great white sharks have been tracked along the Delaware and Virginia coasts, but this one is larger than others that have gained social media fame.
The information scientists glean once a shark is tagged is important, they said, to understanding more about the creatures and how to preserve their habitat.
Tagging a shark, however, is not easy.
Crews use a 126-foot boat and a special hydraulic lift to get access to the animal for a brief time. In about 15 minutes, they take blood and genetic samples, and attach a transmitter to the shark’s dorsal fin.
That transmitter sends a signal to satellites and works much like a GPS tracker. It allows scientists to follow the shark’s movements.
