Great white shark is migrating north

People out on the water along Cape Cod should not be surprised if they see a monstrous great white shark before summer arrives.

Ironbound, a 12-foot white shark that weighs about 1,000 pounds, is quickly migrating north ahead of his fellow apex predators. The OCEARCH Shark

Tracker shows the adult male shark off the New Jersey coast as of last week after shooting up from off the Carolinas.

Most of the great whites start leaving the southern waters in the mid- to late-May time period.

“Ironbound is a bit more of a pioneer leaving early,” OCEARCH Chief Scientist Robert Hueter told the Herald on Tuesday. “It’s not out of the bounds of what we’ve found before.

“It looks like he’s off New Jersey now, and he might be heading up your way fairly soon,” Hueter added about the Cape. “He’s the leader of the pack, and you really don’t want to get in his way.”

OCEARCH shark researchers tagged Ironbound off Nova Scotia in the fall of 2019. The scientists have tracked him over the last few years migrating from Canada to all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. His track shows that he hugs the coast and doesn’t go on offshore forays.

Recently, he’s been spending time off the Carolinas, which researchers believe is a white shark mating site during the winter and early spring.

“I remember him. I was on board when we got him,” Hueter said of tagging Ironbound. “He was a formidable male, and definitely not the prettiest animal we’ve ever gotten. Menacing looking almost.

“He’s been through the wars and knows what he’s doing by making the move earlier than the rest of them,” he added.

Water temperatures have been a few degrees warmer than usual. But it’s hard to say whether the warmer waters are playing a role in his early northward migration, Hueter noted.

Ironbound is named after West Ironbound Island near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He was the 53rd white shark SPOT-tagged by OCEARCH in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.