OCEARCH: 500-Pound Great White Shark ‘Penny’ Pings Off Space Coast Friday

Penny is our 92nd white shark tagged in the Western North Atlantic

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – “Penny,” a 500-pound great white shark, was pinged by OCEARCH off the coast of Palm Bay on Friday at about noon, according to the organization’s shark tracker website.

OCEARCH said “Penny” was tagged in April 2023 off  North Carolina.

“Penny is our 92nd white shark tagged in the Western North Atlantic and our 4th during Expedition Northbound,” said an OCEARCH official.

“She is named after our friends at Salty Penny Canvas in Morehead City (North Carolina). They have helped our team with custom marine canvas projects that provide a more comfortable experience on the water and allow us to operate in tougher conditions. We’re grateful for the Penny family for their support of our research and can’t wait to see what Penny the shark teaches us.”

According to OCEARCH, Penny has swam 9,000 miles and pinged numerous times off Florida during her annual winter migration to the Gulf of Mexico.

OCEARCH is a recognized world leader in generating critical scientific data related to tracking (telemetry) and biological studies of keystone marine species, such as great white and tiger sharks, in conjunction with conservation outreach and education at a measurable global scale.

In a collaborative environment established by Founding Chairman and Expedition Leader Chris Fischer, OCEARCH shares real-time data through OCEARCH’s Global Shark Tracker inspires current and future generations of explorers, scientists, and stewards of the ocean, and enables leading researchers and institutions to generate previously unattainable data. OCEARCH has completed 26 worldwide expeditions.

In 2015, OCEARCH open-sourced the data on the Global Shark Tracker to 2.3 million users and achieved an annual global reach of more than 12.2 billion media impressions, a Facebook reach of 150 million impressions, and a Twitter reach of 36 million impressions.

For more information on OCEARCH, its expeditions, and the Global Shark Tracker, contact info@ocearch.org.

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