Although typically solitary creatures, two great white sharks, nicknamed Simon and Jekyll, have been tracked moving together for over 4,000 miles along the eastern coast of the United States.
The two sharks appear to have followed each other on their journey from the southeastern United States to Canada. The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is usually a solitary animal that travels long distances alone. Therefore, the 4,000-mile (6,400 km) swim of this duo has astonished scientists.
Great white sharks are typically solitary animals, so discovering two males seemingly swimming around each other has surprised scientists. (Photo: Getty Images).
Robert Hueter, a shark scientist at the non-profit organization OCEARCH, which tagged the duo, stated: “Great whites are very solitary. We didn’t really expect to see these sharks together.”
The juvenile great white sharks, nicknamed Simon and Jekyll, were fitted with tracking devices off the coast of Georgia last December. For several months afterward, they remained close to each other on their way north.
OCEARCH tags sharks with sensors that ping their locations when they spend time near the surface. Researchers can use this data to track each shark across the ocean.
Data shows that Simon and Jekyll often followed the same path along the coast, although they weren’t always at the same location at the same time. For example, in early March, both sharks were spotted off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. By early May, Simon appeared to have reached Long Island, New York, while Jekyll was around southern New Jersey.
However, by early July, both sharks were found at the same location off the coast of Nova Scotia, and by mid-month, both were in St. Lawrence Bay, the outlet of the Great Lakes.
Hueter mentioned that he has “never seen anything like this” and noted that scientists collected tissue samples from both sharks to investigate whether they might be related.
Hueter told the Washington Post that scientists still do not fully understand the social behavior of sharks. However, researchers are currently examining how these marine predators interact with each other.
For instance, last year, researchers discovered that individual great white sharks could sometimes be found near other great whites to help locate food.
