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There's a great white shark approaching New York and you can watch its progress on Twitter

Molly Mulshine   

There's a great white shark approaching New York and you can watch its progress on Twitter
LifeScience2 min read

mary lee shark in new york

ocearch.org

Mary Lee is near the coast of New Jersey, as of May 7.

Just in time for beach season, a great white shark is making its way up the east coast toward New Jersey and New York.

A 3,456-pound female great white named Mary Lee was tracked about 10 miles east of Cape May and Wildwood, New Jersey, this morning, according to the Press of Atlantic City. She has been steadily making her way north after spending her winter off the southern coast of the United States.

Mary Lee was tagged by a research team off the coast of Cape Cod in 2012, according to the Press. The great white shark research nonprofit OCEARCH monitors Mary Lee's progress, as well as that of other sharks they've tagged.

mary lee shark in new york

Twitter.com/maryleeshark

Mary Lee on the day she was tagged.

OCEARCH shares the data through its Shark Tracker online. Mary Lee also has a Twitter account, where an anonymous shark aficionado tweets her progress along with corny shark jokes.

The OCEARCH account alerts followers when Mary Lee and other tagged sharks are getting close to the shoreline.

OCEARCH also sent an alrt this morning as Mary Lee approached the New Jersey town of Avalon.

Mary Lee is 16 feet long and has traveled 19,487 miles since September 2012, according to OCEARCH. Every time her dorsal fin rises above the water's surface, it sends a message to OCEARCH.

mary lee shark in new york

OCEARCH.org

This is how far Mary Lee has travelled since 2012.

"The current water temperature off of South Jersey is 55 degrees, just at the lower end of the shark's preferred range," the Press of Atlantic City reports.

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