Do great white sharks have best friends? Tracking data exposes their secret lifestyle

It has long been believed great white sharks aren’t friendly, even to each other, but new research suggests some actually have best friends.

Satellite tracking has revealed some have the suspicious habit of following each other around, according to OCEARCH researchers.

Examples include 9-foot Simon and 8-foot Jekyll, who have stayed together since being fitted with tags off Georgia in 2022.

“This is potentially ground breaking,” according to OCEARCH chief scientist Bob Hueter.

“White sharks lead a very solitary existence. We don’t really expect to see these white sharks staying together. But Simon and Jekyll, they seem to be buddies in the sense that they’re going in the same place at the same time.”

Tracking shows the two sharks have “practically moved together in tandem” as they traveled more than 4,000 miles into Canadian waters, officials said.

Both are now together in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, data shows.

“We’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” Hueter says.

OCEARCH takes fluid and tissue samples when it captures sharks for tagging, Hueter says, and geneticists are now re-examining blood samples from Simon and Jekyll to see if they may be brothers or half brothers.

OCEARCH satellite tags have been fitted on 92 white sharks along the East Coast, leading to new data on the travel habits of white sharks. Among the discoveries is the apex predators make seasonal migrations from the North Atlantic to the tip of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

The reason is not completely understood, but researchers suspect it may involve mating, pursuit of prey and avoiding waters that are too warm or too cold.

OCEARCH believes white sharks may be using waters of North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a mating spot.

This story was originally published August 8, 2023 at 6:39 AM with the headline "Do great white sharks have best friends? Tracking data exposes their secret lifestyle."