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Great white shark pings near Ocean City during busy Memorial Day weekend
Shark in the water! The last thing you want to hear when gathering on a crowded beach with your family to kick off summer. It appears that may have been the case this Memorial Day weekend as "Penny" the great white shark pinged off the coast of Ocean City Monday morning.
OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Shark in the water! The last thing you want to hear when gathering on a crowded beach with your family to kick off summer.
It appears that may have been the case this Memorial Day weekend as "Penny" the great white shark pinged off the coast of Ocean City Monday morning.
Penny is a 10-foot-long female juvenile great white shark, whose journey brought her to the Jersey Shore around 7 a.m.
However, it seems Penny's holiday visit went unnoticed by beachgoers - perhaps she arrived too early!
OCEARCH says this is the first time they have tracked Penny swimming north since tagging her in North Carolina last month.
"We don’t know exactly how close to the beach she is," Fishing Master at OCEARCH Brett McBride said.
McBride tells us that Penny’s ping puts her about a couple of miles offshore and says this path is natural.
"Northern migration should be happening right now, we will start to see more and more of those sharks getting above Cape Hatteras," McBride said.
More sharks doesn’t necessarily mean greater danger, according to McBride, noting young Penny’s relatively petite size.
"If she’s in there chasing bait around on the inside, doing what she’s supposed to be doing, there is absolutely no reason to be concerned," McBride said.