1,000-Pound Great White Shark With Tracking Device Relocated Off Coast of North Carolina

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A huge great white shark has caused an excitable stir by showing up off the coast of North Carolina.

The 12-foot male great white, given the name “Ironbound,” was tracked swimming near Bald Head Island off the coast of North Carolina on May 11, 2020. A marine tracking device placed on him led researchers to nearby Pamlico Sound the night prior.

The last time he was caught, Ironbound weighed a hefty 998 pounds (approx. 453 kg), WRAL reported.

Ironbound was initially caught in the winter of 2019 by Ocearch, a non-profit that tracks great white sharks and keystone marine species for research purposes. On Dec. 3, Ocearch posted footage of their team tagging the huge shark with a tracking device on Facebook.

“White shark Ironbound is one heck of a tough shark,” they captioned their video. “Captain Brett says he has only encountered a couple of sharks with as much attitude as Ironbound had.”

Ocearch’s expedition leader, Chris Fischer, described the huge male shark as “feisty,” adding that Ironbound fought a lot harder than the team was used to seeing.

“You know, you get one that’s much more determined, [it’s] much harder on the guys,” Fischer reflected.

Once the team eventually managed to wrestle the great white on board their expedition vessel, they extracted a semen sample, recorded the shark’s heartbeat, and took a bacteria swab. They also gave the shark his name.

“We’ve been capturing these sharks for two years at West Ironbound Island,” Fischer explained. “It is an awesome place. It is a serious place, and we’ve been waiting for a shark that has that same kind of awesomeness and seriousness and attitude.”

“We’re gonna name this beautiful 3.5-meter male ‘Ironbound,’” Fischer announced proudly.

The legendary great white shark is the largest predatory fish on Earth, according to National Geographic. Its scientific name, Carcharodon carcharias in Latin, which translates to “ragged-toothed,” serves to reinforce the breed’s fearsome reputation.

According to Myrtle Beach Online, these sharks regularly show up along the Carolina coast, particularly during fall and spring migrations. Ocearch routinely tags them with GPS trackers that “ping” every time they resurface.

Incredibly, Ironbound is not the largest shark to show up along the eastern coast of the United States in May 2020.

In the early morning of May 12, a 12-foot-5-inch female great white named “Helena” registered as swimming in the ocean close to Morehead City, reports WECT. A 12-foot-9-inch male great white named “Vimy” also showed up on Ocearch’s tracking technology around the same time, this time near the Outer Banks coast.

“Vimy is named after the Battle of Vimy Ridge,” Ocearch explained, “where Canadian forces fought with tenacity to prove themselves as a rising nation to the rest of the world.”

Illustration - wildestanimal/Shutterstock

Ironbound’s May 11 sighting in North Carolina, however, was something of a surprise. Six weeks prior, the Ocearch team had suspected that their 12-foot behemoth may be swimming in the opposite direction.

“Look who is going against the flow,” Ocearch posted, taking to Facebook on March 23. “White shark Ironbound’s newest ping suggests he might be headed into the Gulf of Mexico. In general, the other white sharks on the Tracker are moving in the other direction.”

Ocearch’s online shark tracker records every “recent ping” from a tracked shark off the east coast of the United States. On May 12 alone, the tracker recorded the presence of 13 sharks: six great whites, five tiger sharks, and two mako sharks.

The researchers believe that warmer weather and milder oceanic temperatures are playing a key role in the increased shark activity off the North Carolina coast.