Great white shark off Southwest Florida’s coast

A nearly 1,200-pound shark originally spotted by scientists in waters near Canada has been tracked to the Gulf of Mexico off local shores on Christmas Eve.

A male great white shark named Nova is off the coast of Fort Myers Beach Monday.

“About 100 days later, he is about [100] miles west of Sanibel,” Bob Heuter said. “I think he’s coming for me.”

Senior Scientist Bob Heuter of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota originally tagged Nova, the great white shark, while he and other scientists from Mote were on a research cruise in Nova Scotia in September.

The travel log shows Nova has journeyed more than 2,000 miles down the east coast of Florida. Heuter said great white sharks come to the Gulf to feed, but Nova’s arrival is a few months earlier than normal. Heuter said that is a good thing.

“It is a sign that the Gulf is healthy,”Heuter said. “And of course, everybody knows we’ve had a very bad red tide event over the last almost year. And to see Nova up here now when the red tide is beginning to break up is a very good sign.”

Heuter said Nova will stay in the gulf for a bit but is likely to move around to fish.

Heuter said during the five years Mote has tracked great whites, it has seen some sharks come right outside the surf zone on the east coast.

“Yet they’ve been doing this all along; there’s no question about that,” Heiter said. “We’re just seeing now for the first time with this technology, and yet nobody’s ever been attacked. So it shows that these animals are really not interested in us.”

To track Nova, access the Osearch tracker.