With summer approaching and Memorial Day weekend drawing crowds to the beaches, stay alert for great white sharks in the water.
On Wednesday, three great white sharks were pinged off the North Carolina coast near Kitty Hawk, according to OCEARCH Shark Tracker, an ocean data tracker that tracks ocean wildlife as they migrate to the north and south.
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The sharks, named Ripple, Cross and Bella, are tracked by OCEARCH and are fitted with transmitters. Each time they surface, they give off a ping.
Bella, a 720-pound female shark, was first tagged in July of 2025, and since then, OCEARCH has tracked her for 6,199 miles.
Ripple, a 778-pound male shark, was tagged in September 2025. He has since traveled 5,904 tracked miles, according to OCEARCH.
Cross, a 377-pound male great white, is the most recent tagged shark. According to OCEARCH, he was tagged in late 2025 for 3,579 miles.
Just this year, OCEARCH pinged the largest male great white the group has ever tagged in the Western North Atlantic.
That fish, named Contender, was tagged off the Florida–Georgia coast, and in February, pinged near Cape Fear. OCEARCH named him Contender after the group’s Florida‑based partner, Contender Boats, Inc.
