Shark named Yinzer trolls Atlantic

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

There’s no word on whether he likes fries on his mackerel or has a Terrible Towel wrapped around his dorsal fin, but somewhere right now, swimming in the North Atlantic near the coast of Massachusetts is a 6foot, 10-inch-long, 255-pound adult male mako shark named Yinzer.

In a bit of Pittsburgh Dad meets Shark Week, that information comes from Ocearch.org, which specializes in generating data related to tracking (or telemetry) and studies of marine species such as great white and tiger sharks, including their Global Shark Tracker.

According to the site: “Yinzer was tagged by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution [in Falmouth, Mass.] aboard the MV Machaca. He was named by the Mandella family who is both avid shark followers and fluent in Pittsburghese.”

The animal was tagged on Nov. 3, 2017, and has since traveled 11,526.046 miles, according to the website, nearly as far north as Nova Scotia and as far south as and farther west than Bermuda.

Perhaps in a show of ’Burgh bona fides, Yinzer’s closest passes to the U.S. Atlantic coast have been near Ocean City, Md., and the Outer Banks area of North Carolina — two favorite vacation destinations of actual yinzers.

You can track Yinzer’s oceanic travels here: www.ocearch.org/profile/ yinzer/.

And, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … the Rangos Omnimax Theater at the Carnegie Science Center will show Steven Spielberg’s seminal summer blockbuster “Jaws” in a 4K digital restoration and surround sound on Pittsburgh’s largest movie screen, Aug. 9-12.