Great white shark tracked in waters off Jacksonville before spring break

Gary T. Mills, Florida Times-Union
·3 min read
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The start of spring break in Northeast Florida is days away, but already, some are heading toward the area’s beaches.

One of them is a great white shark.

According to Ocearch’s online shark tracker, the shark pinged some 60 miles east of Amelia Island on Tuesday at 9:38 a.m.

Named Tancook, the shark measured 9 feet, 9 inches long and weighed 715 pounds when it was first tagged 18 months ago in the waters off Nova Scotia. Since then, Tancook has pinged off the coast of Florida dozens of times each of the last two winters, including just off the coast of St. Augustine on Jan. 21, 2022, and Ormond Beach on Dec. 12-13, 2021.

What you should know:White sharks like Florida waters. Here's 11 things to know, including who's out there now

Jacksonville connection:Ocearch and Jacksonville University help unlock mysteries of the great white shark

In case you missed it:A travel website listed the 10 'deadliest' US beaches. 7 of them are in Florida, here's where

Other sharks being tracked in Georgia, Florida

Tancook is one of four great white sharks in the waters off Southeast Georgia and Florida being tracked by Ocearch this week. The others are:

  • Hali, a 10-foot, 2-inch, 697-pound female shark, pinged southeast of Savannah, Ga., at 7:52 p.m. on Sunday.

  • Maple, a whopping 11-foot, 7-inch, 1,264-pound female shark, pinged southwest of Steinhatchee at 9:43 a.m. on Monday.

  • Rose, a 10-foot, 5-inch, 600-pound female shark, pinged west of Sanibel Island at 9:13 p.m. on Monday.

Florida leads world in shark bites

Tancook, a juvenile male white shark tagged by OCEARCH, is swimming off the coast of Scottsmoor Nov. 25, 2022.
Tancook, a juvenile male white shark tagged by OCEARCH, is swimming off the coast of Scottsmoor Nov. 25, 2022.

In 2022, Florida led the world with 16 unprovoked shark bites, according to data shared by the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File. None fatal though.

Two resulted in leg amputations, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported. Addison Bethea, 17, of Satellite Beach, was diving for scallops in the Florida Panhandle town of Keaton Beach when a bull shark grabbed her leg on June 30. Jameson Reeder, 10, of North Carolina was snorkeling near the Dry Tortugas west of Key West when a bull shark bit him on Aug. 13.

Unprovoked bites are defined by the organization as "incidents in which a bite on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark."

From 2018:Ocearch still hunts great white sharks off Jacksonville, through cold water, bad weather

Just one of Florida's unprovoked shark bites in 2022 was recorded in Northeast Florida, in Nassau County. Volusia County reported the most (seven), followed by Monroe County (four), and Martin, Pinellas, Brevard and Palm Beach counties (one each).

According to the International Shark Attack File, Duval County has recorded 46 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks since 1882. During the same span, St. Johns County recorded 45 attacks and Nassau County just eight.

By comparison, Volusia County — dubbed the "shark bite capital of the world" — saw 343 unprovoked shark attacks during the same period.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ocearch-tagged great white sharks ping off Florida before spring break