White Shark in Key Largo in late July

[harmonised]

I thought white sharks in Key Largo in July especially would be very rare? YouTube link below. The scenes to watch are at 1:24 and then at 3:00. Has anyone seen one this far south, this time of the year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owbFQWijMqI

 

[HalcyonDaze]

OCEARCH.ORG »

If you look at OCEARCH's track for Katharine this year, you'll see she was off the Keys on July 17 headed north. Betsy doesn't have a good track, but presumably as she was in the Gulf of Mexico as recently as June 5 she may well have also been off the Keys in July (her next detection was just off Nantucket just a few days ago). So that's two we know of that were in the area in that timeframe this year. Last year there were a number of other sightings in the Keys during the summer.

They probably are out there; however from the tracked sharks it looks like they're spending more of their time offshore. That would limit the observations by divers and sportfishers. And not all the tagged white sharks have been down this way. Mary Lee's spent the past year nosing around Georgia and the Carolinas, Genie never made it farther south than the Jacksonville area, and Lydia was off doing Cousteau-knows-what in the middle of the North Atlantic for a few months. Sometimes I think they're just out to confuse us

 

[harmonised]

OCEARCH.ORG »

If you look at OCEARCH's track for Katharine this year, you'll see she was off the Keys on July 17 headed north. Betsy doesn't have a good track, but presumably as she was in the Gulf of Mexico as recently as June 5 she may well have also been off the Keys in July (her next detection was just off Nantucket just a few days ago). So that's two we know of that were in the area in that timeframe this year. Last year there were a number of other sightings in the Keys during the summer.

They probably are out there; however from the tracked sharks it looks like they're spending more of their time offshore. That would limit the observations by divers and sportfishers. And not all the tagged white sharks have been down this way. Mary Lee's spent the past year nosing around Georgia and the Carolinas, Genie never made it farther south than the Jacksonville area, and Lydia was off doing Cousteau-knows-what in the middle of the North Atlantic for a few months. Sometimes I think they're just out to confuse us

It appears like their behavior is almost random then. Not even they themselves know where they are going to end up? I found it interesting that the shark in the above video was not in the least bit interested in the divers. I Also recently saw a video of a guy swimming up close with White Sharks. Why did these sharks get such a bad reputation?

 

[Steve_C]

Why did these sharks get such a bad reputation?

Because they are almost apex predators. (Orcas eat them). In parts of the world where they actively feed on seals/sea lions they have taken out a number of divers, swimmers, surfers.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Great whites and any other big predatory sharks fall under the heading of "they probably won't bother you ... but if they do, you're in trouble." They're big animals that can do a lot of damage and on the wrong day they might have a go at you either out of curiosity or outright being hungry. I occasionally do baited dives with tigers and bulls and I am very aware of what they can do should a person's bits end up in their mouths - whatever bit they grab is probably coming off.

Personally, I would love to have an open-water encounter with a great white ... just under a certain set of circumstances. That video from last summer would fall under my ideal parameters for a white shark encounter - good viz, no aggressive behavior from the shark. I was actually dumbfounded that those folks just went ahead with skulling through the Duane - nothing to see there and you have a once-in-a-lifetime experience outside.

 

[Oldbear]

Yeppers...let's all dive with a Great White.