By Pete Thomas
Beachgoers north of Los Angeles might be interested in tracking the whereabouts of a tagged great white shark that has spent the past couple of weeks cruising parts of the coast.
The 15-foot female shark, nicknamed Murphy Jean, has returned to California after spending 100 days in Hawaiian waters.
She was detected off Santa Rosa Island on June 13. She was later tracked swimming along the Morro Bay breakwater, not far from a popular surf spot. She then cruised up and down the coast, likely feeding on seals and sea lions. Her position on Sunday night was just west of Santa Barbara.
Murphy Jean’s return to California culminates a round-trip odyssey that spanned more than 5,000 miles.
Michael Domeier, president and executive director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, told For The Win Outdoors that Murphy Jean visited the islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Lanai while on her tropical journey.
(Murphy Jean is one of more than 100 white sharks tagged by MCSI off Mexico and California, trackable via the group’s Expedition White Shark app.)
Adult white sharks from California and Mexico’s Guadalupe Island migrate to a vast offshore region between Baja California and Hawaii each winter.
A Stanford University/Monterey Bay Aquarium tagging program that focuses on white sharks from the Farallon Islands, west of San Francisco, has tracked sharks into Hawaiian waters. MCSI, likewise, has tracked tagged Guadalupe Island sharks to Hawaii.
Murphy Jean, who was tagged near Morro Bay last Nov. 13, is MCSI’s first California-tagged shark to have visited Hawaii.
Domeier said that while it’s not precisely clear why great white sharks migrate so far offshore, it’s likely for feeding purposes.
“From our 20 years of researching adult white sharks off Mexico and California, I am confident that the time they spend in the offshore region, including Hawaii, is strictly for feeding,” Domeier said. “Mating occurs when they are near the mainland. When they are offshore the sharks are widely dispersed and the males and females are not often in the same area.”
Murphy Jean was named by MCSI tagger Keith Poe after his grandniece, Murphy Jean Poe, who underwent heart surgery as an infant last December. Doctors repaired four holes in her heart and Poe said the girl is “doing great” and will be 17 months old on Tuesday.
–Images courtesy of Keith Poe (top photo) and the Marine Conservation Science Institute
Has anybody see stumpy lately?
Posted by: Heather Baker | Jul 05, 2019 at 07:42 AM