The track of Hilton the Great White Shark since he was tagged in March of this year.Hilton the Great White Shark seems to have passed the Outer Banks by. Around 2:00 p.m. he pinged about 15 or 20 miles off Kill Devil Hills.
Hilton was tagged earlier this year off Hilton Head. He's a 1250 pound shark. It's difficult to say how old he is, but at that size, he's probably just passing his teenage years as sharks go.
Shark Migration
He seems to be heading north, which would be consistent with studies of Atlantic Great White Sharks that have been done.
They tend to summer between Massachusetts and New Jersey then head to Florida for the winter. It would appear he is a little behind schedule for what is typically seen for Great Whites, but the Atlantic species have not been studied as extensively as their Pacific counterparts.
The Other Pinger
By comparison, Katherine the Great White Shark has been tracked since she was tagged off Cape Cod in 2013 and she has shown herself to be a world traveler. She has traveled from the Caribbean to the Grand Banks of Canada.
Katherine is much larger shark than Hilton—about 2300 pounds and measures a little over 14'.
This year she toured the waters of Bermuda before heading west. Her most recent ping was just off the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula.
Katherine has been a visitor to Outer Banks waters, usually in the winter. If that is the case, she is probably heading back to the warmer waters of Florida and the Caribbean.
The pings are created when the shark breaks the surface for 90 seconds, allowing three pings that will fix the location.
The sharks are tagged by OCEARCH, an international organization who has been studying tiger and great white sharks, hoping to help with conservation efforts.
