1,600-pound great white shark pinged off Florida’s Gulf Coast

TAMPA, Fla. — A 1,600-pound great white shark appears to be vacationing off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

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According to WTSP, nonprofit ocean research group OCEARCH said a tracking device for Scot, a 12.3-foot-long, 1,644-pound adult male shark, pinged Thursday morning in waters between the southwest Florida coast and the West Florida Escarpment. He was not near the shore, the news station reported.

A “ping” occurs when a tagged shark’s dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water, TCPalm.com previously reported.

Researchers first tagged Scot on Sept. 8, 2021, near Nova Scotia, Canada, according to WFLA. Since late November, he has traveled an estimated 3,910 miles, OCEARCH reported.

The organization wrote on its website that its partners from SeaWorld named Scot “after the people of Nova Scotia, who have always been so welcoming and committed to the science and health of our oceans.”

Scot isn’t the first great white to head from Nova Scotia to Florida in the past six months. OCEARCH tracked Sable, an 800-pound, 11.5-foot-long juvenile female, to Florida’s east coast in late January. On Thursday, she also appeared to be off southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to the organization’s website.

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