{"id":825757,"date":"2026-07-25T19:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825757\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T19:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:01:11","slug":"1400-pound-great-white-shark-stuns-scientists-with-new-ping-off-florida-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/825757\/","title":{"rendered":"1,400-pound great white shark stuns scientists with new ping off Florida coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While most sharks are hauling north toward cooler waters and abundant food sources during the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/20\/real-estate\/buyers-rush-to-live-in-community-home-to-largest-pool-in-the-us\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">peak of\u00a0summer,<\/a> great white shark Breton is taking an entirely different route and piquing scientists\u2019 curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Breton, an adult white shark weighing more than 1,400 pounds at the time of his tagging, has been tracked by OCEARCH since Sept. 2020, when he was tagged off Scatarie Island, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n<p>When looking at the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker, most sharks are north around Cape Cod or into Atlantic\u00a0Canada. Breton\u2019s latest pings show him hanging out off the coast of eastern\u00a0Florida, where not many sharks frequent at this point in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This has scientists wondering why, as <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/24\/us-news\/12-foot-great-white-shark-ernst-tracked-near-montauk-and-atlantics-biggest-could-be-right-behind-her\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the shark continues <\/a>heading south into much warmer waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During one of Breton\u2019s most recent pings, scientists noted a sea surface temperature of 87 degrees, which is very warm for a white shark.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWarm surface water doesn\u2019t necessarily mean unsuitable habitat,\u201d OCEARCH Senior Data Scientist John Tyminski said. \u201cBreton likely has access to much cooler water at depth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tyminski explained that white sharks like Breton make deep dives, sometimes hundreds of meters deep, into cooler waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40088199\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/breton-swims-camera-tagging-sept-135459875.jpg\" alt=\"A great white shark swims close to a blue boat with &quot;OCEARCH&quot; written on it.\" class=\"wp-image-40088199\"  \/>Breton swims by the camera during his tagging in Sept. 2020.  OCEARCH \/ FOX Weather<\/p>\n<p>As to why Breton is making these moves? There\u2019s no way to know for sure, but scientists suggest that the shark is chasing pelagic fish that stay in large schools <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/08\/science\/great-white-shark-filmed-in-mediterranean-for-first-time\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">down off Florida\u2019s coast.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSharks don\u2019t always follow the rulebook,\u201d Tyminski said. \u201cBreton\u2019s unexpected journey reminds us that the factors driving white shark movements are complex, and we\u2019re still uncovering the secrets behind these remarkable migrations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40088198\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/foxweather-com-earth-space-great-135459324.jpg\" alt=\"Map showing the migration path of a great white shark named Breton along the East Coast of the US, with shark details and travel log.\" class=\"wp-image-40088198\"  \/>Breton\u2019s latest ping on July 20, 2026 off the eastern coast of Florida.  FOX Weather<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH\u00a0is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and protecting sharks, whales, sea turtles and other\u00a0ocean\u00a0life, tagging these animals to track and study their migration habits and behaviors from afar.<\/p>\n<p>Keep up with Breton and more than 400 other ocean animals in real time using the\u00a0free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While most sharks are hauling north toward cooler waters and abundant food sources during the peak of\u00a0summer, great&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,6388,31002,66,4778,886,323],"class_list":["post-825757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-florida","tag-marine-life","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825757","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=825757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}