Nine great white sharks are suddenly tracking off the Carolinas, some 12 feet long

Trackers keeping tabs on great white sharks have exploded with activity along the East Coast, with more than nine showing up suddenly along the Carolinas.

Eight appeared off the coast in just five days, including two that are more than 12 feet long.

The nonprofit OCEARCH, which tagged the predators for research, referred to East Coast tracking numbers as “crazy” in a Monday Facebook post.

Experts offered no explanation for why so many were rising to the surface in the same region. To “ping” on satellite tracking, a shark’s fin needs to rise to the surface. The longer the fin is above water, the more reliably satellites can pinpoint a location, OCEARCH says.

Studies have revealed great white sharks prowl the Carolinas because food is plentiful on the edges of the Gulf Stream, which passes by the Outer Banks.

However, that doesn’t explain why so many showed up together in such a short period.

Tracking shows five of the sharks are off the Outer Banks, including Corolla, Nags Head, Avon and Hatteras. In South Carolina, two are off Charleston, tracking shows.

OCEARCH tagged the sharks in hopes of finding out where they mate, give birth and raise their young, and its discoveries have included proving sharks can travel from Nova Scotia into the Gulf of Mexico in a few weeks.

One of the sharks currently off the Carolinas is 9-foot, 8-inch Cabot, which made headlines last week when a weak tracking signal suggested he was in the Albemarle Sound, between the Outer Banks and the main land.

However, OCEARCH determined that was inaccurate when a “higher quality ping” on a satellite revealed Cabot was in the Atlantic Ocean off Avon, reported The Outer Banks Times.

“While Cabot wasn’t in the sound, I don’t think that is something new…They do go into the sounds and have since the beginning of time…we just know it now,” OCEARCH Founder Chris Fischer told the Outer Banks Times.

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Nine great white sharks are suddenly tracking off the Carolinas, some 12 feet long."