The parade of great white sharks off the New Jersey coast shows no sign of abating; one of the largest tagged beasts “pinged” off the coast, is pretty far off. According to OCEARCH, Nukumi, a huge 17-foot-2-inch inch female who weighs over 3,500 pounds, swam down from Canadian waters over the past week.

“Nukumi” pronounced noo-goo-mee, is named after the legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi'kmaq people, a culture that has deep roots in Canadian Maritime provinces (particularly Nova Scotia). Over the past few months we’ve had several great whites swim by; in October, Andromache, a 10 foot 8 inch sub-adult made its way off the Jersey coast. Before that, Martha, a smaller seven foot great white was pinged off of Long Branch. 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. Miss May, an 800 pound great white was pinged off the coast of Atlantic City in July, as well.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Nukumi is believed to be over 50 years old and has possibly birthed a hundred pups.

She had a satellite tracking device attached to her dorsal fin in October off the coast of Nova Scotia and is making her way south. She is slightly bigger than Mary Lee, a 16 foot, 3,400 pound great white who is still believed to frequent the area; her tracker stopped pinging in 2017.

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.

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