Scientists Track Two Great White Sharks During Migration — and Noticed Never-Before-Seen Behavior
In December 2022, shark scientist Robert Hueter caught Simon and Jekyll while combing the waters off the southern coast in Nova Scotia. After tucking three tracking devices on their abdomens, skin, and dorsal fins, he released them back into the ocean. Ever since, while Hueter sits in his office, his computer constantly receives data from the chips he installed on the bodies of the two white sharks. There is nothing unusual about the whole story, given that today millions of ocean creatures are tagged each day by marine scientists for research. But Simon and Jekyll's extraordinary bond as they navigated and migrated through the Atlantic waters stunned the experts, as Hueter also described in a Facebook video.
According to Smithsonian Ocean, white sharks, in general, are solitary creatures. While they may group to hunt, eat, or mate, they usually navigate the waters on their own. Most of these sharks migrate to the north during summer and to the south during winter. When Simon and Jekyll were tagged, it was their time to migrate to the south. On the other side, Heuter, who had been observing the two sharks, noticed a striking pattern unfolding during their migration. Instead of going it all the way solo, they seemed to be swimming up the Atlantic Coast, following each other all the way from the southeast United States to Canada. By late July, they were in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Quebec.
In the Facebook video, Hueter explained that their migratory pattern was so remarkable because white sharks, in general, “lead a very solitary existence. We don’t really expect to see these white sharks staying together.” Hueter, who’s also a chief scientist for OCEARCH, shared with the Boston Herald that “They’ve taken an unusually synchronous path north. It’s the first time we’ve seen something like this, and it’s very interesting. It’s mysterious, and it’s exciting.”
Smithsonian Ocean also explains that despite their reputation as loners, great white sharks easily cooperate, hunting in groups and sharing the spoils. Ocearch, the organization where Hueter studies and researches sharks, is a non-profit created to study sharks and other marine animals. Researchers here are also conducting genetic testing to see if the two sharks may be related. Are they brothers? Are they half-siblings? Are they companions? Hueter pondered on these questions in the Facebook video.
The organization began researching sharks back in 2012 by collecting their mucus, urine, blood, and poop samples. Researchers here measured the bodies of these mammals, also conducting ultrasound exams from time to time while installing tracking devices in their abdomens, per the Washington Post. Abiding by the tagline “facts over fear,” the group regards these great sharks not just as bloodthirsty predators, but also as mysterious ocean-dwellers who could unleash a museum of insights on marine animal behavior.
“To that end, the revelations about Simon and Jekyll are 'humanizing,” Hueter described to the New York Times. “They have siblings. They have a mother. They have a father. They’re just trying to make a living in the ocean, and we need them for the balance of life in the sea,” he added. Adding to The Washington Post, he said that white sharks were already more complex than the researchers thought they were. And this pattern revealed in Simon and Jekyll has unlocked a “whole new element of sort of a familial and social component to migration.” Meanwhile, Jekyll’s device last pinged on February 16, 2024, 9:50 am, whereas Simon’s device sent the last ping on the morning of April 16, 2024.
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