More shark sightings reported off East Coast

Beware if you're heading out to the Georgia and Carolina beaches over the holidays.

Great white sharks are heading south from Canada, and the Southeast coast is their “winter hot spot," researchers warn.

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In recent weeks there have been at least 10 sightings of great whites off the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts, according to reports by the Charlotte Observer.

Great white sharks are migratory.

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As winter approaches, they swim south to escape the cold waters of the Northwest Atlantic, said scientists with Ocearch, a shark advocacy group that tags and tracks the creatures with GPS devices.

Scientists get a “ping” each time one of the tagged sharks surface. One of the more recent pings was Monday near Charleston, South Carolina, The Associated Press reported.

It's likely the sharks being spotted around the Carolinas are Canadian white sharks, according to Bryan Franks, a shark expert at Jacksonville University.

"Almost all of them, if they haven't made their way down here, have at least started to," Franks told The Associated Press. "It does seem to be clear now that the Southeastern United States is their winter habitat."

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Ocearch reports some great whites have already made it as far south as the Florida Keys and into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the largest sharks being tracked by scientists measured 15 feet, 5 inches, and weighed 2,076 pounds. Known as Unama'ki, she was caught off northern Nova Scotia on Sept. 20.

Another was 15 feet and weighed more than 1,300 pounds, according to reports, and a 1,124-pound male shark surfaced near Daytona Beach on Nov. 6.

Meanwhile, an Ocearch research vessel, a 125-foot steel-hulled ship, continues to monitor shark activity off the Georgia coast in Brunswick, The Associated Press reported.

Marine biologists say great whites have become more active in the Eastern Seaboard after a resurgence in the seal population due to federal protections.

Close encounters 

Multiple news outlets reported a sharp increase in shark sightings at several beaches along the East Coast last summer.  Among the cases:

• In June, 17-year-old Paige Winter was swimming at Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach, N.C., when she was bitten by a shark. Her father saved her by punching the shark in the nose five times, family members said. Paige lost one of her legs in the attack.

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• In August, Cape Cod officials were forced to close beaches to swimmers after more than 10 sharks were spotted near beach waters.
• In early August, three people were attacked by sharks on the same day in Florida. A fisherman on a 23-foot boat off Key Biscayne near Miami was bitten and had to be rushed to a nearby hospital. The other two attacks that day occurred in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., which is known as the "shark bite capital of the world." There, a woman was bitten on the hand and a man was bitten on the right foot, according to news reports. Both survived.
• In Manasquan, N.J., a massive great white shark was caught on camera in June lunging toward a fishing boat as the crew lowered bait into the water.

• In late July, professional surfer Frank O'rourke was attacked while hitting the waves at Jacksonville Beach in Florida.