460-lb great white shark detected in Gulf of Mexico near Panama City
A 10-foot-long great white shark named Crystal has been pinged by the OCEARCH portal just south of Panama City in the Gulf of Mexico.
Crystal is a juvenile shark who was originally tagged on March 14, 2022, near Lookout Shoals, North Carolina, according to OCEARCH.
She was named after North Carolina’s Crystal Coast, a stretch of beaches located near where OCEARCH teams were able to sample and tag her, her profile says.
She has since traveled nearly 4,500 miles, all the way up the eastern shore of the U.S. and back down to the Gulf, where she was pinged on Jan. 7 around 3:30 a.m.
“Crystal is our first and only white shark studied during Expedition Carolinas 2022 and our 84th shark sampled and tagged in our Western North Atlantic White Shark Study,” her OCEARCH page reads.
And at only a few years old and 460 pounds, Crystal still has a long life and a lot of growing ahead of her. According to NOAA Fisheries, great whites can weigh up to 4,500 pounds and have a lifespan of about 70 years.