Large female white shark spotted off the Florida Panhandle coast
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - A white shark that is nearly 15-feet long has been spotted off the coast of the Florida Panhandle.
According to the non-profit organization Ocearch, white shark Miss Costa was spotted off the coast of the Florida Panhandle on Sunday. She was pinged about 65 miles off the coast of Panama City.
Ocearch said on Monday that Miss Costa pinged once again even closer to the Florida Panhandle. This is the farthest into the Gulf of Mexico the organization has ever tracked her. This is only the second time that Ocearch has reportedly tracked Miss Costa into the Gulf of Mexico.
Ocearch told Fox 35 that Miss Costa was originally tagged in Nantucket in 2016. Back then, she was just 12 feet, 5 inches long. She now is between 14 and 15 feet.
Large female white sharks are not often tracked into the Gulf. Prior to Miss Costa, Ocearch said that Betsy and Katharine are the only other large female white sharks that the organization has ever tracked down there. They believe that female white sharks stop visiting the Gulf when they reach adulthood and become pregnant for the first time.
Ocearch said that they believe that Miss Costa has likely reached adulthood, but is just not pregnant or quite mature enough yet. They will monitor her next year to see if she returns to the Gulf.
Miss Costa is named after Ocearch's partner, Costa Sunglasses.
This story was written in Orlando, Florida.
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