Atlantic White Shark Conservancy Deploys Second-Ever Camera Tag on Great White Shark

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) has successfully deployed the second-ever camera tag on a great white shark off the southeast US. Working with charter captain Chip Michalove of Outcast Sportfishing, AWSC scientist Megan Winton was able to clamp the device to the dorsal fin of a 9-foot female white shark off the South Carolina coast. The team also deployed a fin-mounted satellite tag that will transmit the shark’s location to overhead satellites in real time when its dorsal fin breaks the water’s surface for the next year. This addition comes after the AWSC just recently updated their White Shark Catalog for 2024, marking another significant step forward in their ongoing efforts to understand the northwest Atlantic white shark population. The new shark will soon be available for tracking on AWSC’s Sharktivity app.

The camera tag provides researchers with a ‘shark’s-eye’ view and includes sensors that record data on the shark’s movements and environment 10 times a second. After a day, the entire device detaches from the shark and floats to the surface, where it transmits its location via a GPS beacon so researchers can retrieve it.  The data collected will be used by AWSC to learn more about how white sharks use the waters off the Carolinas and why they gravitate to the region in the winter and spring.

“We know from historical records and tagging data collected over the past 15 years that the southeast US is an important overwintering habitat for white sharks,” said Megan Winton. “But we don’t know that much about how they use the area exactly, or what it is they’re doing when they’re there.” 

Captain Michalove nicknamed the shark Jason Flack, as a way for the Hilton Head, SC, community to honor the local man who died in hit-and-run late this February. Michalove and Winton also teamed up to tag the shark known as LeeBeth, who garnered international attention as she swam further west into the Gulf of Mexico than any previously tracked white shark.

“I never thought I’d be holding the dorsal fin of a great white shark and applying this type of technology,” said Capt. Chip Michalove. “I’ve been intrigued with these sharks my whole life, and what we’ve learned from their paths has been fascinating.”

AWSC’s shark catalogue is the most comprehensive source of photos and information on individual white sharks that have been identified along the Atlantic Coast. The organization has identified over 700 white sharks since it began monitoring the population in 2014.

If members of the public capture footage of a white shark in the waters along the Atlantic coast of the US or Canada or in the Gulf of Mexico, they can contribute it to the White Shark Logbook by sending it to info@atlanticwhiteshark.org.