2 great white sharks pinged off Florida coast this week

Two great white sharks were caught swimming near the Florida coast this week. 

OCEARCH, a nonprofit organization dedicated to tracking sharks and collecting previously unattainable data in the ocean, recorded two sharks whose fins broke the surface of the water this week. They "pinged" in the waters near the Florida Keys. 

A "ping" happens with the help of a Smart Positioning and Temperature (SPOT) Tag that allows OCEARCH to track sharks in real time. The SPOT Tag "pings" when a shark fin breaks the surface of the water. 

At 1:13 p.m. on Friday, a 9-foot-7, 578-pound great white shark named Keji pinged in the Gulf of Mexico. The juvenile shark, which was first tagged in September 2021 in Nova Scotia in Canada, is named after Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site in the region. His track over the past few years shows that he has pinged all along the eastern coast of the U.S. 

Photo by Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

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On Thursday night at 11:20 p.m., Jekyll, an 8-foot-8, 395-pound great white pinged near the area where Keji did. Jekyll is a juvenile shark that was first tagged in Jekyll Island, Georgia, in December 2022. 

Click here to see the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker.