A massive\u00a0great white shark\u00a0was patrolling the waters just off Alabama\u2019s coast in January \u2014 and now, off the coast of Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Around the middle of January, the 12-foot, nearly 1,000-pound female shark, known as \u201cErnst,\u201d was detected off the coast of Gulf Shores, Alabama, after her satellite tag pinged, researchers said.<\/p>\n
That location a few weeks ago marked one of the westernmost points recorded for a great white shark in the Gulf and was considered unusual behavior, researchers told news agency SWNS.<\/p>\n
The ping placed the shark near the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of America off the\u00a0coast of Louisiana.<\/p>\n
Researchers said the shark\u2019s proximity to shore was notable and that it falls outside what they typically observe for\u00a0great white sharks\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n
OCEARCH, a US-based marine research group, tagged Ernst in October 2025 in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n
After the tagging, Ernst began a long coastal migration, traveling thousands of miles from Canadian waters along the US East Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe cut right over to lower Maine from Nova Scotia, migrated right down the coast, and has moved around\u00a0Miami and the Keys\u00a0and all the way beyond the Florida Panhandle,\u201d Chris Fischer, founder and expedition leader of OCEARCH, told SWNS.<\/p>\n
The 12-foot, nearly 1,000-pound female shark, known as \u201cErnst,\u201d was detected off the coast of Gulf Shores, Alabama, after her satellite tag pinged. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n
Researchers said the shark\u2019s proximity to shore was notable and that it falls outside what they typically observe for\u00a0great white sharks\u00a0in the region. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n
Fischer said Ernst\u2019s movement westward is rare for great white sharks in the Gulf.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has really moved into one of the farther parts of [where] we see them moving west,\u201d Fischer said. \u201c[For] the majority of the sharks, this is pretty far reach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great white sharks are selective about where they travel, he added \u2014 tending to move through areas with abundant\u00a0marine life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of unusual to see her so tight to the beach there, which is a great sign for the region because this is a signal that there\u2019s a lot of life and a lot of biodiversity,\u201d Fischer said.<\/p>\n
The ping placed the shark near the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of America off the\u00a0coast of Louisiana. OCEARCH<\/p>\n
After the tagging, Ernst began a long coastal migration, traveling thousands of miles from Canadian waters along the US East Coast. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n
Great white sharks are selective about where they travel, he added \u2014 tending to move through areas with abundant\u00a0marine life. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n
Ernst\u2019s travel log on the\u00a0OCEARCH site\u00a0as of Sunday, Feb. 1, indicates the female shark pinged again on Jan. 30, around 6 a.m. that day, south of Horn Island off the Mississippi coast.<\/p>\n
(Researchers are able to note her location when the tag on her dorsal fin breaches the surface of the water, as noted on the site.)<\/p>\n
\u201cErnst the shark carries forward [a] spirit of connection, resilience and teamwork that keeps both island life and ocean research moving forward,\u201d the organization says on its site as it continues tracking her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OCEARCH tracks other great white sharks across the Atlantic and\u00a0Gulf of America\u00a0using satellite tags.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital recently reported that Contender, the Atlantic\u2019s largest recorded male great white shark, returned to\u00a0Florida waters\u00a0in January 2026, one year after being tagged.<\/p>\n
After traveling as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the 14-foot, 1,700-pound shark resurfaced in warmer coastal waters, a movement researchers said could be tied to great white shark mating activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive\u00a0great white shark\u00a0was patrolling the waters just off Alabama\u2019s coast in January \u2014 and now, off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,41189,166148,6386,66,4778,886,323],"class_list":["post-449812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-great-white-sharks","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-mississippi","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}