10-foot great white shark surfaces again in Gulf of Mexico, off Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Kim Luciani, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·3 min read
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A frequent visitor to Southwest Florida waters is back!

Penny, a 10-foot OCEARCH-tracked great white shark, surfaced off the Fort Myers Beach coast at 11:01 a.m. Sunday.

The satellite tag attached to the shark's dorsal fin sends a ping with location information when it surfaces out of the water. The pings are tracked and mapped by OCEARCH.

Penny previously pinged south of Marco Island on January 20. The shark was also tracked off Marco Island Jan. 6, Sarasota on Jan. 11 and Cape Coral on Jan. 15.

OCEARCH scientists tagged Penny off North Carolina in April of 2023. She then traveled north to Nova Scotia and stayed there until October before heading south in late October in search of food sources and warmer waters.

This is the shark's first known winter in Florida waters.

Here's what to know about Penny, nonprofit group OCEARCH and great white sharks in Florida:

What to know about OCEARCH white shark Penny

Penny, a female white shark, was 10 feet, 3 inches long and weighed 522 pounds when she was tagged off Ocracoke, North Carolina, in April 2023.
Penny, a female white shark, was 10 feet, 3 inches long and weighed 522 pounds when she was tagged off Ocracoke, North Carolina, in April 2023.

Penny, a female juvenile great white shark, measured 10 feet 3 inches and weighed 522 pounds when she was tagged on April 23, 2023, off Ocracoke, North Carolina.

The shark has traveled 5,393 miles since then – from North Carolina north to Nova Scotia, then south for the winter in the Gulf of Mexico.

Penny was the 92nd white shark tagged by OCEARCH in the Western North Atlantic and named after the group's friends at Salty Penny Canvas in Morehead City, North Carolina.

Facts about great white sharks

Here are some things to know about white sharks, according to NOAA Fisheries:

  • White sharks grow slowly. Males mature at around 26 years old and females at around 33 years old. Life expectancy is difficult to determine but is estimated to be between 30 and 70 years.

  • White sharks are about 4 feet long at birth but can grow up to about 20 feet long and weigh over 4,000 pounds.

  • White shark eat an opportunistic diet of fish, invertebrates and marine mammals.

  • White sharks are partially warm-blooded and can maintain their internal body temperature above that of the surrounding water. This allows them to be more active in cooler waters than cold-blooded species.

Why are great white sharks in Florida?

White sharks migrate south when the water gets cold and food sources become scarce up north, according to OCEARCH chief scientist Dr. Bob Hueter.

Think of them as the snowbirds of sharks.

Most of them tend to stay away from the beaches in continental shelf waters, Hueter said.

What does OCEARCH do?

OCEARCH is a nonprofit research organization studying the ocean's giants.

The group studies great white sharks and other keystone species essential for the health of the oceans.

OCEARCH recently finished up its 46th expedition, dubbed Expedition Southeast. It departed from Jacksonville on Nov. 17 and made its final docking in Morehead City, North Carolina on Dec. 15.

During the expeditions, researchers collected previously unattainable data on the animals' migrations, reproductive cycle, genetic status, diet, abundance, and more.

"If we lose the apex predator (sharks) then we lose all our fish and then there are no fish sandwiches for our grandchildren," OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer told the Courier Journal. "That's oversimplified, of course, but the idea is important because many shark species are threatened by overfishing and a demand for shark fins in Asia. Their dwindling numbers jeopardize ocean habitats."

Most shark attacks happen in Florida

There were 69 documented unprovoked shark attacks around the globe in 2023. The U.S. led the world with 36 attacks and Florida again was the state with the most bites at 16.

Florida shark attacks by county:

While the U.S. has the most attacks, South Africa has the most shark-related fatalities.

Since 1992, there have been 1,232 shark bites worldwide, according to data from floridapanhandle.com, with white sharks credited as the top biters.

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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Great white sharks in Florida: 10-footer pings off Fort Myers Beach