{"id":452516,"date":"2026-02-06T12:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452516\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:56:12","slug":"great-white-shark-pinged-near-tillamook-what-to-know-about-oregons-shark-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/452516\/","title":{"rendered":"Great white shark pinged near Tillamook: What to know about Oregon\u2019s shark season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tillamook was atwitter this week over reports that a tagged great white shark<\/a> was swimming near the Barview Jetty. <\/p>\n

A screenshot shared by Michael Domeier<\/a>, president of the Marine Conservation Science Institute<\/a>, showed a location ping for a 16-foot female white shark named Kara, last tracked Jan. 29 near Tillamook Bay. <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll note here that scientists tend to simply refer to the species as \u201cwhite sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a community, we\u2019re trying to step away from the sensationalized side of it, so we try to call them white sharks as opposed to great whites,\u201d said Taylor Chapple, associate professor at Oregon State University\u2019s Hatfield Marine Science Center and co-director of OSU\u2019s Big Fish Lab<\/a>. \u201cThe other thing I like to tell people is that it\u2019s just sort of redundant because every shark is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domeier has studied sharks for decades and has appeared on several shows that are part of the Discovery Channel\u2019s \u201cShark Week.\u201d<\/a> In an email, Domeier said Kara was one of six large adult white sharks tagged in October near Point Conception along the southern California coast. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this is not an unprecedented migration for one of our tagged sharks, we\u2019ve only had one other shark move that far north,\u201d Domeier wrote. \u201cWe hope to follow Kara for a few years, eventually discovering where her pupping grounds are located.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marine Conservation Science Institute\u2019s Expedition White Shark app costs $3.99 and allows users to view the latest tracking locations for eight actively tagged sharks.<\/p>\n

And while Kara\u2019s sighting \u2014 more accurately her \u201cpinging,\u201d since no one has reported actually seeing the shark \u2014 sparked considerable social media chatter, white sharks along the Oregon coast are not unusual.<\/p>\n

Chapple said white sharks are just one of 16 shark species seasonally spotted off the Oregon coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, it\u2019s this time of year, January and February, when they\u2019ll come up the coast from Mexico, California, and sometimes directly offshore,\u201d Chapple said.<\/p>\n

They come to Oregon to feed on marine mammals like seals and sea lions, but also seem to time their arrival with the seasonal availability of lingcod. <\/p>\n

Just a week and a half ago, a person near Waldport captured video of a smaller white shark, probably about 9 feet long, eating a harbor sea. <\/p>\n

Chapple has been studying and tagging sharks for more than 20 years, and he started OSU\u2019s Big Fish Lab in 2019. At any given time, the Big Fish Lab has between 100 and 150 active tags on various shark species along the West Coast.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe put these tags on in order to learn where they\u2019re going,\u201d Chapple said. \u201c\u200aWe always thought they were these coastal predators, but it turns out they only spend about half their time along our coasts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other six months of the year, white sharks hang out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he said, about halfway between Baja and Hawaii, where they are believed to gather to mate.<\/p>\n

White sharks can live 70 years. They are also one of the few warm\u2011blooded fish species, an adaptation that helps them be more effective hunters in cold water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re chasing down marine mammals, which are really dynamic, and so they need to be equally as dynamic,\u201d Chapple said. \u201cIf you were a shark that was slow and lethargic, you can have a hard time catching a really fast and agile sea lion, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

California has more predictable hotspots where white sharks regularly gather to feed \u2014 such as the Farallon Islands near San Francisco, where they return annually to prey on elephant seals.<\/p>\n

But Oregon doesn\u2019t seem to have that same steady hunting ground. Instead, white sharks roam up and down the coast, and beyond. They\u2019ve been regularly spotted near Port Orford and Newport, Chapple said. OSU has acoustic stations that have picked up shark tags at Seal Rock, Otter Rock, Cape Arago and Tillamook Head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t seem to sit around and hunt in those locations as focused as we see down in California,\u201d Chapple said. \u201cIn Oregon, they\u2019re much more spread out and they\u2019re much less predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

White sharks have also been spotted farther north in Grays Harbor, Washington and Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that white sharks generally do not pose a danger to humans. <\/p>\n

\u200a\u201cThey are not out to get us. They have been honing their skills as predators for 400 million years, and they\u2019re really good at it,\u201d Chapple said. \u201c\u200aWe\u2019re just not on the menu. The sharks are incredibly discerning, and they know what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only fatality of the 31 documented shark attacks<\/a> off the Oregon coast happened in 1975, when a California couple\u2019s boat capsized 200 miles northwest of Astoria.<\/p>\n

One way to support the Big Fish Lab\u2019s work is through Oregon\u2019s shark\u2011themed license plate<\/a>. The \u201cVibrant Ocean\u201d specialty plate features three shark species commonly found in Oregon waters: a salmon shark, a thresher shark, and a blue shark \u2014 not a white shark.<\/p>\n