A 1,000-pound white shark, known as Ironbound, has been recorded swimming off the New Jersey shore.
According to marine research group OCEARCH, which provide the open-source data about shark migration, Ironbound's length is estimated to be 12 feet and 4 inches and it weighs about 452 kilograms. The adult male shark was first tagged by marine experts in 2019 in waters around Nova Scotia, Canada.
The shark was named after West Ironbound Island, which is located near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where it was first seen. It was the 53rd white shark SPOT-tagged by OCEARCH in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. The experts there dubbed Ironbound as the "toughest sharks" they ever came across.
According to CNN, Ironbound, migrating north, was spotted at 10:30 pm on April 28 in the seas off the coast of New Jersey.
Bob Hueter, chief scientist of OCEARCH, said that the huge fish is approximately 20 years old. "OCEARCH has tagged great white sharks as long as 17.5 feet and as heavy as 4,000 pounds," Mr Heuter added.
The scientist said that Ironbound has travelled 13,000 miles (nearly 21,000 kilometres) since being tagged in 2019. "He's been back and forth multiple times between where we found him in Nova Scotia and the Florida Keys," Mr Hueter added.
The tracker that OCEARCH uses during tagging pings anytime sharks breach the water surface as part of its data collecting operation.
Sharks begin to migrate north during this time of year. Before turning around and returning to Florida, Ironbound will most likely spend the summer and early fall in the northern waters surrounding Nova Scotia.
