14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, on Friday, May 8, a positively humongous great white shark was spotted swimming along the shoreline of New Jersey, US, not far from Atlantic City.
The female shark was tagged by non-profit organization OCEARCH back in September 2012 while exploring the coast of Cape Cod Massachusetts. She has since traveled nearly 20,000 miles (roughly 32,000 kilometers).
The great white, named Mary Lee after OCEARCH founder Chris Fisher's mother, measures 16 feet (4.8 meters) in length and weighs about 3,450 pounds (1,560 kilograms).
This makes her one of the biggest sharks whose movements through the ocean and along coastlines wildlife researchers have until now had the chance to closely document.
The shark has been exploring US shorelines for weeks now
As illustrated in the map included in the gallery below, great white shark Mary Lee has been swimming along the eastern US coastline for quite a while now.
Over the past month, she's visited North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware before finally making her way to New Jersey.
Shortly after being spotted in the waters close to Atlantic City, the great white shark swam by the city of Brigantine and headed towards Long Island Beach.
The reason OCEARCH researchers know so much about Mary Lee's travel plans is because, every time her fin breaches the water, the electronic tracker she is fitted with emits a signal.
Tagging Mary Lee wasn't easy
To tag this great white, daredevils first had to pull her aboard their research vessel. To do this, they used a special lift designed to withstand weights of up to 55,000 pounds (nearly 25,000 kilograms).
“We bait the shark and once we are pulling on the shark we walk it back to the ship and over the lift. The lift then pulls it out of the water,” explains Chris Fisher.
Once Mary Lee was out of the water, the OCEARCH crew attached an electronic tracker to its dorsal fin. One activated, the device began communicating with a satellite to relay the shark's position.
As mentioned, the device allows wildlife researchers to closely track Mary Lee's swimming patterns and document her behavior in the open ocean and along coastlines.
Great white shark Mary Lee is quite a celebrity, has loads of fans
Unlike other great whites that keep to themselves, Mary Lee is quite a celebrity. Her Twitter and Facebook accounts have loads of followers, all eager to know everything about what she's up to.
Although famous, Mary Lee isn't all high and mighty. She's very polite to her fans and jokes around with them whenever she has the chance.
“Oh you know, swim, eat, tweet and repeat. Every week is #SharkWeek,” she once told a fan who wanted to know how she would be celebrating Shark Week.
