Great White Sharks Are Making Their Way To Canada & An Almost 1,000 lb One Is Leading The Pack

As the weather gets warmer, great white sharks are heading up north to Canada and one that's almost 1,000 pounds is leading the way.

OCEARCH, a shark research organization that goes on expeditions in Nova Scotia waters, tags and tracks great whites as they migrate through the ocean off the coast of Canada and the U.S.

The organization's chief scientist, Robert Hueter, told the Boston Herald on May 3 that Ironbound, a 12-foot-4 great white weighing 998 pounds, is moving north before other sharks in the region.

Most typically, they start to leave southern waters in mid to late May and then usually arrive in northern waters at the beginning of June.

"Ironbound is a bit more of a pioneer leaving early," Hueter said. "He's the leader of the pack and you really don't want to get in his way."

This great white shark is an adult male that was tagged off the coast of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 2019, and he's named after West Ironbound Island which is near Lunenburg.

At the beginning of May, he was pinged heading north off the coast of New Jersey and New York.

"He's been through the wars and knows what he's doing by making the move earlier than the rest of them," Hueter said.

Ironbound isn't the only great white that's moving up the east coast of the U.S. toward Canada and you can track their journeys online.

Mahone (13 feet 7 inches and 1,701 pounds), Sable (11 feet and 807 pounds), Ulysses (11 feet and 990 pounds), Tancook (9 feet and 715 pounds), and Breton (13 feet 3 inches and 1,437 pounds) have also pinged further north recently.

Great whites tend to spend the summer and fall around Atlantic Canada.

OCEARCH said it's because the waters are a "feeding aggregation" for the animals before they head down south in the winter!