Meet Hilton, the first catch of OCEARCH’s Expedition Lowcountry great white quest
OCEARCH caught its first great white shark of Expedition Lowcountry Friday afternoon.
The team of shark researchers and fishermen have been sailing around South Carolina seas since Monday in search of great white sharks.
On Friday afternoon, OCEARCH tweeted that the fisherman caught and released a mature 12.5-foot great white shark. According to MarineTraffic.com, OCEARCH’s 126-foot vessel was located about eight miles off the Hilton Head coast.
Chris Fischer, OCEARCH’s founding chairman and the expedition leader said they named the shark “Hilton” (Educated guess: That’s after Hilton Head Island).
Just tagged & released 12.5ft mature male white shark named Hilton off @hiltonheadsc @OCEARCH @CostaSunglasses @YETICoolers @ContenderBoats pic.twitter.com/bdxlXRh7oR
— Chris Fischer (@ChrisOCEARCH) March 3, 2017
OCEARCH hopes to to gather data on the ecology, physiology, and behavior of mature great white sharks in the Atlantic Ocean through Expedition Lowcountry. It is the group’s 28th mission.
OCEARCH has satellite tagged and tracked a total of 20 great white sharks in the Atlantic. The scientists hope to tag more sharks on this expedition in order to have a sizable sample for understanding the species’ habitat usage and movements.
Expedition Lowcountry will continue off the Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina coasts until March 15.
This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Meet Hilton, the first catch of OCEARCH’s Expedition Lowcountry great white quest."