These 5 great white sharks are swimming off the South Carolina coast this winter
Brookes, Cayo, Cross, Nori and Webster aren’t the Grand Strand’s typical winter tourists, but as water temperatures drop and prey grows scarce, white sharks join humans and birds in traveling to the Myrtle Beach area for the holidays.
Many white sharks in the west Atlantic make their way south to spend winter months off of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, according to Ocearch, an ocean research nonprofit that tracks hundreds of marine animals.
Among the sharks tracked by Ocearch, in the last month five pinged off the Carolina coast around the Grand Strand from above the state line to south of Georgetown.
Since starting her journey south in Nova Scotia in early October, 8-foot-10-inch female white shark Nori has been making her way down the coast. The 423-pound shark, which is only a juvenile, most recently pinged off of Georgetown on Nov. 30.
While Nori is still young, Webster is fully grown. As the biggest of the bunch, the male white shark weighs in at 1,008 pounds. With a 12-foot-2-inch frame to match, Webster has spent the fall around the ocean off of South Carolina before pinging just over the state line on Dec. 2.
Two other juvenile white sharks, 8-foot-10-inch, 456-pound female shark Brookes and 9-foot-1-inch, 377-pound male shark Cross were located further out to sea on Dec. 13.
Most recently, 10-foot-3-inch juvenile female shark Cayo pinged off of South Carolina on Dec. 15. This is the farthest south the 689-pound shark has pinged since Ocearch started tracking her off of Nova Scotia in July.
Other sharks off the South Carolina coast
The five white sharks Ocearch has tracked in the area aren’t alone. South Carolina waters are home to many shark species year-round, and host even more in the colder months.
“We have several species that live right here off the coast … there are at least 20 different species that you can see here locally,” said Jamie Justice, Museum of Coastal Carolina director of programs and exhibits, “We’ve got spiny dogfish, we’ve got sandbar sharks, Atlantic sharks.”
Anyone who has taken a dip in South Carolina oceans has probably swum with sharks, but the animals tend to stay below the surface and avoid human encounters. There have been fewer than 120 confirmed unprovoked shark attacks in the state, and there hasn’t been a fatal attack since the 1840s. Sharks may infest Myrtle Beach’s waters, but they aren’t much of a threat.
Amateur marine biologists can keep an eye on Brookes, Cayo, Cross, Nori and Webster as they enjoy their winter vacation before returning to the north on Ocearch’s online tracker.