Murky Waters
Is the Bay becoming a haven for great whites?
Great white sharks are huge flesh-eating machines that swim at speeds up to 35mph and travel the oceans of the world to satisfy their appetites.
On May 29, a great white known as Mary Lee was reportedly detected in central Chesapeake Bay between North Beach and Tilghman Island. The predator would normally prefer the salty waters of the Atlantic Ocean. So what would make Mary Lee swim more than 100 miles up into the brackish waters of the Chesapeake?
Mary Lee is part of a global shark-tracking program led by the non-profit company OCEARCH, which aims to increase our knowledge of sharks while benefiting public safety and awareness.
Mary Lee’s whereabouts are monitored by a transmitor attached to one of her fins. The transmitor has to be above water for a certain amount of time to give the satellites a precise location and register a ping. The longer it’s above the water, the better the ping.
In addition to the ping from the Bay that weekend, four additional pings were received placing Mary Lee in the ocean off the coast of New Jersey. Four pings trump one.
A good ping can correspond very closely to the shark’s actual location — within 250 meters. But a bad ping can be miles off, or even indicate that the shark is on land.
It’s unlikely that Mary Lee visited the waters off of North Beach. But it’s not impossible. We still have a lot to learn about the migration patterns of great white sharks. Learn more at www.ocearch.org.