Jekyll, a juvenile great white shark, was known to travel for 4,000 miles alongside a 9-foot shark named Simon. But it appears they may have parted ways.
USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida
Hello, Jekyll!
The 8-foot 8-inch great white shark, tagged by the nonprofit research group OCEARCH, pinged off Jupiter Island at 1:27 p.m Wednesday.
A ping means the satellite tag attached to the shark’s dorsal fin broke the water’s surface long enough to transmit location information.
Jekyll previously pinged off Jacksonville‘s coast on the morning of Feb. 4. He’s traveled 7,152 miles since OCEARCH tagged him off Jekyll Island, Georgia in December 2022.
The juvenile white shark surprised scientists when they discovered it had been traveling for 4,000 miles alongside a 9-foot white shark named Simon. White sharks were previously thought to prefer only solitude.
But Jekyll and Simon may have parted ways. Simon’s tracker shows his last ping in the Gulf of Mexico off Marco Island on Feb. 4. On Jan. 20, Jekyll pinged off South Carolina less than a day before Simon was tracked off Florida’s Treasure Coast.