Great white shark crashes local summer, enters NJ waters

Apparently no one told the sharks that beach season is over. Another great white shark has appeared off the Jersey coast.

The shark, Martha, is small at 7 feet long and 184 pounds and was tagged (and named) by OCEARCH which tracks sharks. As reported in the Asbury Park Press, Martha was “pinged” off the shore at Long Branch; the pinging occurs when the shark’s tagged dorsal fin comes close enough to the surface for a satellite to pick it up.

Martha was originally tagged off of Cape Cod in August and has traveled 379 miles since. According to the OCEARCH website, Martha is the 4th white shark tagged during OCEARCH Expedition Massachusetts 2020. She is named after the island of Martha's Vineyard.

It was a busy summer for shark sightings: a fisherman caught a dead one off the Barnegat Inlet in August, in July, a shark off LBI attacked a dolphin and two other tagged sharks were verified, Caroline (12 feet 9 inches long, 1,348 pounds) who was pinged off of Barnegat Light in July, and Vimy (13 feet long 1,364 pounds), who was pinged off the South Jersey/Delaware coast on July 10th.

A possible third shark is a Jersey Shore regular, Mary Lee, who is 16 feet and over 3,000 pounds. Her tracker’s battery died in 2017, but she is believed to still frequent the area. Two other, smaller, great whites, Cabot and Caper, were spotted near the Hamptons. Miss May, an 800 pound great white was pinged off the coast of Atlantic City in July, as well. Also this summer, a woman swimming in Maine was attacked and killed by a great white.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.