Great White Shark Verified In South Padre Surf

A great white shark has been verified about 200 yards off the beach at South Padre Island, TX.

“LeeBeth,” a 14.1 foot, 2,600-pound female, was fitted with a satellite tag by Capt. Chip Michalove of Outcast Sport Fishing on December 8, 2023, off the coast of South Carolina.

Listen to our conversation with Capt. Michalove on this special edition of Higher Calling Wildlife-the podcast. Click here to listen or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, IHeartradio, etc.

Michalove tags for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and said although other Atlantic-tagged sharks have shown up in the Gulf of Mexico, this one made a bee-line for the Lone Star State.

“Most stopped around the Mississippi River, but LeeBeth kept going. She’s traveled 2,000 miles since we caught her off Hilton Head,” Michalove said.

“Acadia,” a 1,000-pound female great white tagged by research group Ocearch in Nova Scotia in September 2020, pinged in Feb. 2021, about 140 miles off the coast of Galveston.

“Leebeth,” however, went hundreds of miles further south and much closer to the shore.

She is also “pinging” more than previous sharks.

“The tags only signal back to the satellite when the shark swims near the surface and the fin breaches the water. She’s been pinging a lot, which has given us a great look into her movements,” Michalove said.

In the 1963 book Shadows In the Sea; Sharks, Skates & Rays, the presence of great whites in Texas waters is mentioned as far back as the 1950s.

“A great white shark seven feet long was caught in 15 fathoms, 12 miles off Port Aransas, Texas, on February 9, 1950. Seven days later, a second great white, 11 feet, 4 inches long, was caught in the same area. Ten days later, a third, this one 12 feet, 2 inches long, was caught there.”

NOAA has some interesting older data on great whites in the Gulf of Mexico. Their earliest recorded white shark was off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, on a set line in the winter of 1937. Another specimen was caught in the same area in 1943.

In February 1965, a female was captured in a net intended for bottlenose dolphins at Mullet Key near St. Petersburg. In addition, National Marine Fisheries Service officials reported 35 great whites as bycatch in the Japanese longline fishery in the Gulf from 1979 through 1982.

Michalove has tagged 47 great whites off the coast of South Carolina and said although he has been fascinated with great whites his whole life, his respect for them has only grown.

“They are so intelligent and are truly amazing creatures. It just blows me away that I can be a part of helping science understand these great and, in many ways, mysterious creatures.”

Chester Moore