Great White Sharks Gathering Around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

OCEARCH / Facebook

Eight great white sharks with tags were found pinging the radar off the coast of Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. OCEARCH, a group that tags and studies the behaviors of sharks posted a Facebook post asking why the sharks were congregating to that one area.

https://www.facebook.com/OCEARCH/photos/a.465080140166/10162766553570167/?type=3&__tn__=-R

“What do you think could be causing this big gap in where white sharks are pinging right now. There are pings in the Gulf of Mexico and then a big grouping in North Carolina/South Carolina but none in the middle,” OCEARCH said on Facebook.

In late January the sharks were more spread out but now it appears they’re concentrated in that one area. OCEARCH hasn’t given a clear answer on why the sharks are doing this but researchers believe it could be due to the warmer weather coming from Florida.

The tagged sharks range from 8 feet long to 13 feet long and are just a small fraction of the great whites that may be lurking in the waters off the coast of North and South Carolina. The waters could literally be full of them in that area.

OCEARCH tags the sharks so that they can learn about where they swim, where they mate and where they give birth to their young. The group was founded on March 9, 2011 and is a non-profit organization known as world leaders in collecting scientific data to track great whites and other marine species.