Video from April 2023 shows research nonprofit OCEARCH catching, measuring, tagging and releasing a white shark they named Penny off the coast of North Carolina. Penny is a juvenile female white shark.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.– A white shark called Webster has been tracked hanging out in the open ocean, hundreds of miles from the coast of Florida.
Webster was tagged by OCEARCH in Sept. 2025 in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.
He’s an adult male white shark, weighing a little over 1,000 pounds and just over 12 feet long at the time of being tagged.
The research nonprofit has tracked his movement via satellite pings ever since, watching him make quick work down the East Coast.
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Webster’s track from Nova Scotia down to the open Atlantic off Florida’s Coast.
(OCEARCH / FOX Weather)
Webster was tracked for several months, spending time off the coast of South Carolina.
In late January, Webster went on the move again, traveling north for a brief period, before heading out into deeper ocean waters and moving south.
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On Thursday night, the white shark was tracked in the open Atlantic roughly 425 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral, OCEARCH said.
“Much of the open ocean is almost devoid of life, and considered a biological desert,” said John Tyminski, senior data scientist for OCEARCH. “That’s largely due to low nutrient levels.”
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Tyminksi said when moving through the open ocean like Webster is, apex predators will often seek out eddies, temporary rotating water masses that can bring cold, nutrient-rich waters to the surface, operating as temporary feeding grounds.
Webster’s next move could be anywhere, but OCEARCH will continue to watch his movements using their free global shark tracker to help further their research into white sharks.
OCEARCH is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and protecting sharks, whales, sea turtles and other ocean life, tagging these animals to track and study their migration habits and behaviors from afar.
