PHOTO: 523-Pound Great White Shark Tagged Off NJ Coast During Migration

Penny the Shark
OCEARCH/Twitter

A great white shark was lurking near the coast of Ocean City, New Jersey, Monday as experts tracked her and others.

The juvenile shark named Penny weighs 523 pounds, and she “pinged” near the Ocean City Beach just before 7:00 a.m., the tracking research group known as OCEARCH said, Patch.com reported Tuesday.

In a social media post on Monday afternoon, OCEARCH said it met her in April when she was swimming off Ocracoke, North Carolina, adding it was monitoring her movements north for the first time:

The experts are “tracking the migration of white sharks like Penny as they head north for the summer,” the Patch.com article said.

“Many white sharks spend time in the area of Outer Banks, North Carolina, before they go north, and researchers hope to find out when and where they mate,” the report continued.

Video footage shows the map highlighting Penny’s location:

In recent weeks, four great white sharks have been detected in the waters near New York and New Jersey during their annual migration from the Florida Keys, CBS New York reported Monday.

“Annual migration…I wish they would just keep going. Please don’t stop at our beaches,” a reporter said of the news:

The great white shark is described as the biggest known predatory fish in the ocean, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

“It has 300 teeth, yet does not chew its food,” the organization’s website continued:

Sharks rip their prey into mouth-sized pieces which are swallowed whole. The shark’s heavy, torpedo-shaped body allows it to cruise efficiently for long periods of time, and then suddenly switch to high speed bursts in pursuit of prey—sometimes leaping out of the water. It feeds on a broad spectrum of prey, from small fish, such as halibut, to large seals and dolphins.

In June, fishermen saw one of the sharks while off the coast of Sea Isle City, New Jersey, and recorded the extraordinary moment, according to NBC 10.

“Right off the coast of Sea Isle. Look at this monster,” one of the men said from behind the camera:

“We were pretty amazed with the sight because it was a once in a lifetime,” fisherman Joey Piazza recalled, adding, “To see it in our oceans today, the great giant of the world, it just was impressive.”

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