A GREAT white shark has been spotted near Long Island, New York for the first time, swimming “very close” to a public beach.
The fearsome 10ft, 500lb predator was located near to where the classic movie Jaws was set.
“Be advised! For the first time ever, we are tracking a white shark in the Long Island Sound,” shark tracking organisation OCEARCH tweeted.
Sharks regularly swim past Long Island as part of their migration pattern up and down the east coast but this is the first recorded sighting of one coming up the Long Island Sound.
Chris Fischer, founder of the research group, told ABC News: “He was right up on the beach, very close.”
But he said there was no immediate threat to swimmers though people should use “common sense” when going in the water.
The male shark was tagged by OCEARCH in Nova Scotia, Canada last autumn and its movement monitored as it swam up and down the east coast of the United States, including as far south as Florida.
Fischer suspects the shark was making a stop to feed in the area, before heading back out to deep water and continuing north.
“Now he’s making his way back north, probably back to the Nova Scotia region,” Fischer said.
“Something got his attention and brought him into the Sound to have a look.”
The shark has been named Cabot after John Cabot, who was sent to explore North America in 1497 by Henry VII of England.
Jaws was located in the fictional Long Island town of Amity but mostly filmed in Martha’s Vineyard, up the coast.
CURIOUS AND HUNGRY
It also has his own Twitter account and it tweeted: “I just wanted to give a big thank you to all of you amazing humans.
“Today has been a spectacular day for me and @OCEARCH and I couldn’t be more grateful for the support many of you have shown!”
Fischer said the presence of the shark in Long Island Sound is a sign there is now an abundance of sea life in the area for the predator to feed on.
Last week OCEARCH revealed Cabot was among a group of great white sharks spotted off the coast of the US.
The longest is named Luna who measures 15-foot and weighs in at more than 2,100 lbs – half the weight of a hatchback.
Her tracker sent out an alert on Monday by the Charleston Bump, an underwater rock formation 90 miles southeast of Charleston.
She is the largest great white ever caught and tagged by OCEARCH since the non-profit organisation was founded in 2007.
The marine monster was caught in October 2018 using a thick fishing line near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
The tags affixed by OCEARCH convey information on location, depth, temperature and light levels using satellite and acoustic signals sent to ocean-bottom receivers.
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to give a big thank you to all of you amazing humans. Today has been a spectacular day for me and @OCEARCH and I couldn’t be more grateful for the support many of you have shown! pic.twitter.com/0C262FRsCI
— Great White Shark Cabot (@GWSharkCabot) May 20, 2019
