Second great white shark makes rare, mysterious journey through waters off Mississippi

Perhaps Keji put in a good word for the waters off the Mississippi Coast.

Weeks ago, that great white shark was confirmed to have traveled into the waters off the coast, a rarity in our area of the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, a different 10-foot great white shark from Canada’s coastline is now prowling waters off the mouth of the Mississippi River and curious scientists aren’t exactly sure of its intentions. The nonprofit OCEARCH says the shark, named Crystal, is an anomaly among the 92 white sharks it has tagged in the northwest Atlantic. “Yes, Crystal is only our sixth white shark to venture west of the Mississippi River,” Paige Finney with OCEARCH told McClatchy News.

“We have many of our white sharks venture into the gulf, I believe last we checked (and) it was half ... However, those sharks typically stay towards the eastern side of the gulf.”

It remains a mystery why a few sharks keep going west. In February, a white shark named Caroline set a record when she was tracked as far as Veracruz, Mexico, OCEARCH says.

A closer inspection of 460-pound Crystal’s track shows she avoided venturing too close to waters spilling from the Mississippi River. In doing so, she sidestepped “a defined break in water temperature, salinity and phytoplankton,” OCEARCH reports.

Crystal’s most recent “ping” off a satellite shows she was off Grand Isle, Louisiana, as of 5:37 a.m. on Jan. 23. That puts her about 300 miles east of the Texas state line.

She was originally tagged in March 2022 and has since traveled 4,078 miles, OCEARCH data shows.

The research agency’s shark tracking program has proven white sharks make seasonal treks up and down the East Coast. It’s suspected the motives include warmer water to the south and better prey.

However, OCEARCH also believes a mating ground is found off North Carolina’s Outer Banks. White sharks mate in the area, then the females move out into deeper Atlantic waters while they gestate, researchers theorize.

This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 8:54 AM.