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It was the end of April, about 10:30 at night when off the Jersey shore the tracker pinged a 12-foot long 1000 pound great white shark was on the move, cruising up the east coast on the hunt for seals.
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But normally the massive creatures don't swim that far north until June. - Sometimes they take a shot⁽¹⁾ at it, because maybe once out of every 10 years, it's warm enough up there where they can move in, and eat seals starting a month early.
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But when he hit the cold water the great white thought twice and turned back south again to North Carolina, his name is Ironbound⁽²⁾ after the island in Nova Scotia where the research group Osearch⁽³⁾ first tagged him.
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He is a determined, you know, young mature male trying to make his way in the white shark world, and he has the attitude to do so.
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Since late 2019 Ironbound has traveled 13,000 miles from Canada down to the Florida keys, where just like the snowbirds great whites like to warm up in the winter and while 12 feet may sound gargantuan they can get a lot bigger.
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Check out this one, Deep blue, caught on camera in Hawaii, forget for a moment the fearlessness of that diver and look at the size of the shark, 20 feet long, weighing two and a half tons.
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The great white population has been rebounding for the last two decades, Cape Cod Massachusetts⁽⁴⁾ has become a hot spot, lots of seals lots of whites, the backdrop for that Hollywood classic.
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At least 47 people were attacked by sharks in the United States last year, including a California surfer and a 12-year-old girl swimming off the Maryland coast. - It felt like something ran into my legs and I ran out and I find blood everywhere.
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In 2020, a great white killed a woman off the coast of Maine, but oceanographers stress that shark attacks are rare, and this predator is vital.
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Well they manage the ocean system and if the ocean system's not working, we die, and these guys are the system managers, so if they thrive we thrive⁽⁵⁾.
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Okay so where is Ironbound right now? you can actually follow his movements on Osearch's tracking system.
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It shows that he is off the coast of north Carolina, but keep in mind great whites return to their same summer feeding spots every year.
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So Ironbound will be passing through these waters again, sometime in the next few weeks making his way back to Nova Scotia guys.
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That's terrifying, I love sharks but it's it's the case of mistaken identity that worries me. when I'm boogie boarding and the Jersey shore, I look like a delicious seal. - That's what like a chubby look not like an appetizer.