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NASSAU, Bahamas--A great white shark weighing 2,000 pounds (908 kilos) returned on Friday to the waters of the northern Bahamas where a GPS device attached to the marine predator confirmed it had roamed before, the non-profit OCEARCH organisation said.
The ocean research group confirmed via a Twitter post that the nearly 14.5-foot (4.4-metre) female shark named Lydia has been tracked for just over two years.
Lydia has travelled some 34,500 miles (55,500 kilometres), since she was first tagged near Jacksonville, Florida, on March 3, 2013.
She carved her niche in history last year when her arrival in the UK made her the first great white shark on record to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Referring to her record crossing, a National Geographic report states: "Researchers had suspected great whites could make such a journey, but none had previously been documented doing so.
"The shark now also holds the distinction of traveling the farthest of any known great white. This champion swimmer blew past the previous record holder, a female that swam from South Africa to Western Australia and back – crossing the Indian Ocean both ways, for a total of 12,427 miles in 2004."
Great white sharks seized the public's imagination following the release of the 1975 blockbuster movie "Jaws," based on Peter Benchley's bestselling novel.
OCEARCH is a non-profit organisation with a global reach for unprecedented research on great white sharks and other large apex predators.
In a collaborative environment established by Founding Chairman and Expedition Leader Chris Fischer, OCEARCH enables leading researchers and institutions to generate previously unattainable data on the movement, biology and health of sharks to protect their future while enhancing public safety and education.
OCEARCH is a leader in open source research, sharing data in near-real time for free through the Global Shark Tracker, enabling students and the public to learn alongside PhDs (those holding a doctorate degree).
More than 50 researchers from more than 20 institutions have collaborated with OCEARCH to date with at least three dozen research papers in process or completed.
Research expeditions are conducted worldwide aboard the M/V OCEARCH, which serves as both a mother-ship and at-sea laboratory.
Utilising a custom 75,000lb capacity hydraulic platform designed to safely lift mature sharks for access by a multi-disciplined research team, up to 12 studies are conducted in approximately 15 minutes on a live mature shark.
Powered by five Cat engines, the M/V OCEARCH is capable of global circumnavigation. ~ Caribbean360 ~
