4 great white sharks detected in waters off NJ, NY ahead of Memorial Day
(CNN) — Travelers visiting New York or New Jersey beaches for Memorial Day might want to keep an eye out for some fishy friends: Four great white sharks that have been detected swimming off the coast in the past weeks.
OCEARCH, a nonprofit marine research group which provides open-source data about shark migration, recently recorded four male great white sharks around New York and New Jersey. The organization places electronic trackers on each shark that "ping" when the shark breaks the surface of the water, allowing researchers to track the sharks' annual migration and movement patterns.
Simon, a 9-foot long 434 pound juvenile great white, pinged off Fire Island on May 2, according to OCEARCH's website. He's traveled 1,520 miles over the past 105 days, says OCEARCH.
Then Jekyll, another juvenile who weighs 395 pounds and is 8 feet 8 inches long, pinged on May 15th off Long Island. The shark has traveled 1,595 miles over the past 102 days.
Jekyll was joined by Keji, another juvenile weighing almost 600 pounds and reaching over 9.5 feet in length, who pinged on May 17th. Keji has traveled 7,697 miles over the past 368 days, according to OCEARCH.
On May 21, Frosty, a juvenile weighing in at 393 pounds and measuring 9 feet 2 inches long, also pinged off the coast of Rhode Island.
The four sharks all appear to be making their annual migration from the Florida Keys up to the US Northeast and Canada, according to OCEARCH's data.
OCEARCH previously told CNN the sharks typically spend their summers in the "very rich feeding grounds" off the eastern US and Canada before returning south again for the winter.
The research group captures sharks and takes biological samples from them before fitting each animal with a tracker. The sharks are then safely released into the wild, according to OCEARCH's website.