Penny the great white shark spotted off coast of Ocean City, N.J.
OCEAN CITY, N.J. (CBS) -- A great white shark named Penny was spotted off the coast of Ocean City, New Jersey, according to the nonprofit marine research group OCEARCH. The shark sent a signal Monday morning after surfacing near 17th Street.
OCEARCH has been tracking Penny since last month when she was in Ocracoke, North Carolina.
White Shark Penny pinged in this morning off Ocean City, New Jersey! We met this 523lb & 10’3” juvenile female #WhiteShark just last month off Ocracoke, NC and we are watching her journey north for the first time!#FactsOverFear #NewJersey #OceanCity pic.twitter.com/X3Xmbaj1Pw
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) May 29, 2023
Penny is 10 feet long and weighs more than 523 pounds.
"Our Atlantic Ocean is returning to one of the world's great wild oceans due to successful management," OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer wrote in a tweet. "When entering the ocean pay attention to your surroundings. Look for quiet areas to swim and if you see areas full of life sit on the beach and watch until it passes."
Lounging at the beach with her husband near where Penny pinged in the ocean, Jennifer Bertucco recalled going to the Ocean City movie theater to see Jaws.
"Living at the ocean, you were always just a little bit wondering what's out there," Bertucco said. "It was good yet a little bit terrifying."
With Penny spotted close to the shore, Bertucco said she'll skip a day going into the ocean.
"My thoughts are I'm going to stay right in this chair," Bertucco said, laughing. "It's all good. These are the things that can happen here at the ocean, and it's all good. We can share."
Ocean City is buzzing after this 10-foot-long, 523 pound great white shark's tracker pinged just off 17th Street Monday morning. Today @CBSPhiladelphia, why a shark expert says this pinging is good news for the ocean. pic.twitter.com/HYOM0MYIi8
— Brandon Goldner (@GoldnerTV) May 30, 2023
Stockton University shark expert Steve Nagiewicz said the fact that Penny is swimming in the Atlantic Ocean near Ocean City is good news.
"They're a sign that the ocean's healthy. It's doing what it needs to do," Nagiewicz said. "It's just, 'Jaws,' I think, scared people that sharks are their mortal enemies, and we kill more sharks every year than sharks even bite people."
According to OCEARCH's website, which allows people to track the shark's adventures, Penny is the nonprofit's 92nd great white shark tagged in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Penny got her name after Salty Penny Canvas in Morehead City, North Carolina.
OCEARCH previously said four great whites were detected in the waters of New Jersey and New York beaches in the past weeks.
How common are shark attacks?
The unofficial start of summer is here. With Memorial Day Weekend in the rear-view mirror, trips to the Jersey Shore will become a staple of the summer. That means beach trips and swimming in the ocean.
Earlier this month, a Chester County teen was bit on her foot by a shark in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. The bite required several stitches. But shark attacks in New Jersey are extremely rare.
International Shark Attack File claims that there have only been 15 unprovoked shark attacks in the Garden State. The most recent was in 2006.
"You're about 200 times more likely to drown in the ocean than you are to be bitten by a shark," Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida program for shark research, said.