{"id":195247,"date":"2026-03-17T18:37:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195247\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:37:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:37:34","slug":"nearly-10-foot-endangered-dusky-shark-pings-off-the-gulf-coast-near-st-petersburg-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/195247\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 10-foot endangered dusky shark pings off the Gulf Coast near St. Petersburg, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014Endangered dusky shark Mira was tracked off the Gulf Coast on March 10, just about 60 miles west of St. Petersburg<\/a>, Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First tagged in Jacksonville<\/a> in May 2025, Mira, a female adult dusky shark, is relatively new to the tracking program.<\/p>\n

She measured 9 feet 8 inches long and weighed about 327 pounds, making her\u00a0just above the known size for maturity within the species, according to Ocearch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

10-Foot White Shark Pings ‘Tight To The Beach’ Off North Carolina Coast Just Ahead Of Spring Break<\/a><\/p>\n

She is the\u00a0first-ever dusky shark<\/a>\u00a0to be tracked by OCEARCH,\u00a0offering rare insights into a globally endangered species.<\/p>\n

Since being tagged in May 2025, she\u2019s been on quite an extensive journey.<\/p>\n

Over the past 10 months, she\u2019s been tracked all along the East<\/a> and Gulf Coasts<\/a>, pinging as far north as the Maryland<\/a> and Delaware<\/a> coasts, before making her way back to the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Large and powerful, these sharks<\/a> are potentially dangerous to humans, often appearing in shallow coastal waters where swimmers frequent and capable of delivering a strong bite.<\/p>\n

Four White Sharks Ping In The Gulf Just In Time For Spring Break<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the IUCN Red List, dusky sharks are classified as\u00a0Endangered<\/a>\u00a0globally due to massive population declines caused by overfishing.<\/p>\n

Largest Male Great White Shark Ever Recorded In The Atlantic Emerges Off The North Carolina Coast<\/a><\/p>\n

With that said, their recovery is significantly hindered as well by their extremely slow life cycle, as they often do not reach maturity until\u00a0about 20 years of age\u00a0and have long gestation periods of up to\u00a022 months.<\/p>\n

\"Dusky<\/p>\n

FILE: A dusky shark seen hunting off Southampton, New York on July 20, 2024.<\/p>\n

(FOX Weather)<\/p>\n

According to OCEARCH, scientists say Mira offers valuable data as she did not show signs of pregnancy or recent mating.<\/p>\n

How To Watch Fox Weather<\/a><\/p>\n

“Seeing Mira using Gulf waters is an encouraging sign for conservation efforts after the species nearly disappeared from the region in the 1980s and 90s,” they said.<\/p>\n

With much still to uncover about the species, she is named Mira, meaning “wonder” and also a star in the night sky.<\/p>\n

Mira and other sharks and sea animals <\/a>like her can be tracked in real-time using the free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Original article source: Watch: Nearly 10-foot endangered dusky shark pings off the Gulf Coast near St. Petersburg, Florida<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014Endangered dusky shark Mira was tracked off the Gulf Coast on March 10, just about 60…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[90626,2728,28,536,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-195247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-dusky-shark","tag-endangered-species","tag-florida","tag-gulf-coast","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}