A great white shark’s year-old satellite tracking tag washes up on Ocean Isle Beach

Madison Lipe, Wilmington StarNews
OCEARCH is a nonprofit environmental group that captures, tags and releases sharks to help researchers and the public learn more about the movements and habits of these marine predators. Here, researchers prepare to tag and take samples from Lydia, a 14-foot, 6-inch great white shark that was captured off Florida.
OCEARCH is a nonprofit environmental group that captures, tags and releases sharks to help researchers and the public learn more about the movements and habits of these marine predators. Here, researchers prepare to tag and take samples from Lydia, a 14-foot, 6-inch great white shark that was captured off Florida.

A pop-off satellite tag belonging to one the great white sharks in OCEARCH’s global shark tracker research program has washed up on the shores of Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County.

With the help of the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher and the Ocean Isle Beach Sea Turtle Protection Organization, shark Umi’s tag was found.

The tag has a year’s worth of data that can provide insight on Umi’s offshore movement along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

“This is especially invaluable as her SPOT tag never gave us any pings, highlighting the importance of utilizing multiple tags to track these animal’s movements,” stated an online post by OCEARCH.

The post said Umi was tagged on April 20, 2023, and named by Yamaha Rightwaters, an environmental conservation organization.

OCEARCH is a global nonprofit organization that focuses on returning the world’s oceans to balance and abundance, according to their social media.

The organization’s shark tracker allows users to explore real-time tracking data of sharks and other ocean animals and learn about them.

ON THE HUNT: OCEARCH to partner with NC Aquarium, UNCW on shark expedition

SEARCHING FOR SHARKS: OCEARCH catches, examines and tags great white sharks

OCEARCH’s shark tracker app allows users to see the closest tracked shark, which currently the closest in the Cape Fear Region is Ulysses, which was last located around Ocean Isle Beach.

Ulysses is an adult white shark that is 990 pounds and 12 feet and 4 inches long. He is named after the founder of OCEARCH and his latest z-ping was Saturday at 10:21 p.m.

A z-ping occurs when the tracker is not out of the water for long enough, so the signal is sent to the satellite, but it is not strong enough to get an exact location.

Currently there are 21 sharks being tracked along the North Atlantic east coast, and they have recently pinged as far south as Isla Mujeres in Mexico, near Cancun, and up north near Nova Scotia in Canada.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: A great white shark's satellite tracking tag found on Ocean Isle Beach

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