Great White Sharks Expand Westward in the Gulf

IN 2005, Tide magazine published an article I wrote about great white sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Jaws in the Gulf?” was honored in the Texas Outdoor Writers Association Excellence in Craft competition that year, but it was quite controversial in online fishing forums. Naysayers said I was crazy for claiming great whites existed in the Gulf, despite the evidence presented in the piece.

In 2014, the claim of great whites in the Gulf was vindicated when “Katharine” and “Betsy”, two young great whites were verified in Gulf waters. I wrote about them here and at our website, fishgame.com.

Both of these sharks were fitted with SPOT transmitters by research/conservation group OCEARCH. These tags communicate with satellites and when the information from those tags is fed back to OCEARCH, it allows the public to view their movements at OCEARCH.org.

When, Katharine, all 2,300 pounds of her, staked out the stretch of coastline off of Panama City Beach, Florida., people paid attention. More than four million logged onto the OCEARCH website, crashing the server that week and causing a media firestorm.

“Those two sharks, Katharine in particular, drew an enormous amount of attention to great white sharks in a very positive way, and the interactive nature of the site, gave people a way to see great white movements take place in a way never before possible,” said OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer.

“We are solving the life history puzzle of ‘Jaws’ out of the Cape Cod area for the first time in history, and it has been interesting to see unfold.”

That story is continuing to unfold as Unama’ki, a massive adult female that was 2,076 pounds at the time of her capture off the coast of Nova Scotia moved into the Gulf just as the coronavirus closures began. The last “ping” of her tag at the time of this writing was offshore somewhere west of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

This is the first mature great white tagged by Ocearch to show up this far west in the Gulf.

I have long said if one pinged in Texas, I would gather up every bit of fish oil I could find, head to the last known location, and put out a chum slick that would draw sharks from Cuba.

I’ve seen great whites in the Pacific but seeing one in the Gulf would be incredible. In fact, I’m a little envious of Capt. Scott Fitzgerald.

The guide at Madfish Charters was fishing for amberjack this spring about 8.5 miles off the coast of Panama City, Florida when he felt a big bump in his boat according to a report from USA Today.

A large great white shark attacked his trolling motor.

“He knocked the boat two feet to the side, then grabbed the trolling motor and started shaking it in his mouth,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s when I ran up front and pulled it out of his mouth.”

How cool would that be?

Yes, you are probably thinking I am crazy at this point, but I have been a mega-fan of great whites since I first saw “Jaws.” It was the television airing in 1979, but that blockbuster debuted 40 years ago this summer and since then the great white has been the most iconic creature in the ocean.

A paper titled “Seasonal Distribution and Historic Trends in Abundance of White Sharks in the Western North Atlantic,” published by PLOS ONE sheds some fascinating light on white shark populations.

The study, which examined great white sightings from a wide variety of sources from 1800 to 2010, showed the range of white shark occurrence extended from the north coast of Newfoundland to as far south as the British Virgin Islands, as far east as the Grand Banks and Bermuda, to as far west as the coast of Texas.

Yes, Texas.

According to NOAA, their earliest recorded white shark was off the coast of Sarasota, Florida on a setline in the winter of 1937. Another specimen was caught in the same area in 1943. Also, National Marine Fisheries Service officials reported 35 great whites as by-catch in the Japanese longline fishery in the Gulf from 1979 through 1982.

The presence of great whites in the Gulf has been verified by science but the information was rarely discussed until the appearance of “Katharine” and “Betsy,” a later Florida area visitor named “Costa” and now, “Unama’ki.”

There is a very good chance more great white sightings will take place in the Gulf and possibly Texas waters.

The removal of gill nets along the shallow areas of the Gulf Coast beginning in 1994 has given young great whites an advantage. They use these areas as “nursery” and for decades were almost all killed in the nets. Great whites are sexually mature at around 10 years of age so we are going on our third generation of whites born without the nets.

There is much to learn about great white behavior and though formerly out of reach, Ocearch’s cutting-edge approach has made knowledge of them possible.

Historical records from the 1900s show great whites in catch records from Florida to Port Aransas, Texas.

Without question, these giants are not abundant in Gulf waters, but it’s obvious they don’t mind swimming in its warm currents—and I have a feeling Unama’ki, isn’t the only one out there.

 

—story by CHESTER MOORE

 

 

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