List of Great White Sharks Recently Spotted Off Florida Coast

Let's be clear: sharks already have a bad enough reputation. As the late Jaws author Peter Benchley once wrote: "Sharks don't target human beings, and they certainly don't hold grudges." Research has agreed — that despite gory horror movies like Jaws and The Meg, the predators aren't really that interested in feasting on human flesh.

But while sharks are not out to make you their lunch, it can and does happen.

Florida is the state with the most documented shark attacks in the U.S., and the incidents often make national news. Last week, a shark bit a man's foot in New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, Florida's shark attack capital — an incident that provided ample headlines in advance of Discovery Channel's "Shark Week."

One of the research groups looking to cut through the sensationalism, dispel sharks' bad rap, and further conservation efforts is OCEARCH. The group has dozens of marine expeditions and a wealth of shark research under its belt, with a new multimillion-dollar research center set to be built in Mayport, Florida.

Thanks to satellite trackers OCEARCH has implanted on sharks' fins, Floridians can now keep an eye on a handful of sharks that might be lurking around their local beach. The group, whose motto is "facts over fear," says that millions of people around the world have viewed its trackers, which let users see locations of tagged sharks and other marine animals in "near-real time, learning alongside scientists as they conduct their research."

We trust that folks will employ the tracker to fuel their interest in shark research, not as a means to ease their galeophobia (i.e. fear of sharks) by monitoring large, celebrity sharks before heading to the ocean.

In any event, here's a handy dandy list of sharks recently tracked around Florida (spoiler alert: they're all great whites!):

Sarah

She's a Key West girly.

Sarah, a 10-foot juvenile female, was hanging around the Keys late last year. She was pinged twice in December 2023 in the Straits of Florida.

She weighed 632 pounds at last count and has traveled more than 2,700 miles since she was first tagged in Nova Scotia in 2021.

Jekyll

The 9-foot juvenile male was last tracked off Florida's coast in February 2024, slightly west of our girl Sarah.

First tagged in Jekyll Island, Georgia in 2022, the then-395-pound shark traveled hundreds of miles south to the coast of Key West, during which he stopped to spend a weekend off the shores of Miami.

Breton

He's an aspiring artist.

The hefty 1,400-pound male became famous after OCEARCH pointed out that tracked points of his movements created a "self portrait" — what appears to be a drawing of a large shark spanning the country's east coast.

He was last tracked off the coast of Port St. Lucie on July 3.

The story of the shark, which, fitted with a GPS tracker, seemingly spent years drawing a picture … of itself

[read more: https://t.co/x55FZdEYEY] pic.twitter.com/yugzBWBNAH

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 29, 2023

First tagged in Nova Scotia in 2020, the 13.3-foot shark has traveled a whopping 35,599 miles since then.

Bob

Bob, another big boy who weighs 1,300 pounds, was last tracked off the coast of Jacksonville in March. He'd apparently been hanging around North Florida for a good portion of this past winter.

The 13-foot male adult was first tagged in Nova Scotia in 2021 (like Sarah!) and has since traveled more than 4,000 miles.

He is named after OCEARCH chief scientist Dr. Robert (Bob) Hueter, a pioneer in shark science.