What to Know
- A massive, nearly 900-pound white shark known as Freya was spotted off the coast of the Jersey Shore and Long Island over the past few days, according to the nonprofit OCEARCH.
- Freya, an 11'8", 883-pound sub-adult female white shark, was last pinged in Block Island Sound, off of Montauk, New York, Monday night shortly before 11:15 p.m., OCEARCH announced.
- Prior to being seen off of Long Island, Freya was spotted Thursday night visiting Delaware Bay and moving up the Eastern Shore of New Jersey, OCEARCH said.
A massive, nearly 900-pound white shark known as Freya was spotted off the coast of the Jersey Shore and Long Island over the past few days, according to the nonprofit OCEARCH.
Freya's last location was pinged in Block Island Sound, off of Montauk, New York, Monday night shortly before 11:15 p.m., OCEARCH announced. Freya, an 11'8", 883-pound sub-adult female white shark, "is likely following schools of Menhaden as a food source. We’ve seen some of our sharks come to this area in the past," the non-profit said in a Facebook post.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Prior to being seen off of Long Island, Freya was spotted Thursday night visiting Delaware Bay and moving up the Eastern Shore of New Jersey, OCEARCH said.
Freya was first tagged in March. Her name was chosen by OCEARCH partner SeaWorld and the origin of her name means “Noble Woman.” She was named in honor of the women researchers on Expedition Carolinas and past OCEARCH expeditions who are working to uncover crucial shark insights related to their species’ conservation.
OCEARCH is a non-profit organization that researches these ocean giants. The organization is currently studying the Northwest Atlantic White Shark.
This is not the first time that a great white shark has been spotted off of our shores.
Mary Lee, the svelte 16-foot-long great white shark with more than 124,000 Twitter followers, was seen in the area in 2017.
Researchers have been monitoring the shark’s movements since tagging her off Cape Cod on Sept. 17, 2012. She’s made several trips to New Jersey over the years.
