Katharine the great white shark tops 10,000 miles

COCOA BEACH — Katharine the great white shark just topped 10,000 miles and she's closing in on Brevard County.

"She's basically a snowbird," said Greg Skomal, a scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. "My guess is that her migration is mitigated by water temperature, hence the seasonal pattern."

Researchers captured the 14-foot, 2,300-pound great white shark in August 2013 off Cape Cod, fitted her dorsal fin with a satellite tracking device and dubbed her "Katharine."

Since then, her journeys — more than 10,717 miles total — have captured the imagination of researchers and shark enthusiasts and sparked media feeding frenzies. Her "pings" make headlines, and Thursday she pinged at 2:16 a.m. ET off New Smyrna Beach, on a track that looked to be heading toward Oak Hill.

Katharine's every ping brings new revelations — in real time. And they're upending everything scientists thought they knew about shark migration, proving these apex predators don't just roam at random. They're driven, although by the beat of very different drums.

"We are learning together as we look at these tracks," said Bob Hueter, director of the center for shark research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. "We've thrown out everything that we thought we knew about the species in the Atlantic."

Hueter, a scientist for the non-profit OCEARCH team that's tracking Katharine and dozens of other sharks, said the tracking shows sharks seeking food and reproduction areas, but some travels seem random.

After being tagged, Katharine headed south for the winter, usually staying close to shore or near the Continental Shelf. But she surprised researchers by venturing into the Gulf of Mexico last year, during almost the hottest summer months. Researchers had thought great whites only did that during winter.

In May, she meandered waters off the Kennedy Space Center, where she lingered several miles offshore for days, before heading north.

Katharine wasn't the first shark OCEARCH had tagged, but almost every media market the 14-foot-long great white passed by seemed to fall for her. She's all the rage on social media, too.

Her Twitter feed, @Shark_Katharine, boasts more than 17,000 followers.

Mary Lee and Genie — other great whites tagged by OCEARCH — also have gained thousands of online fans.

But Mary Lee seems only to have Georgia on her mind.

"She hasn't done any kind of movement," Skomal said. "These animals are not typical fish."

Then there's Lydia. She's in the middle of the North Atlantic, seemingly oblivious to the winter weather.

"She's way out there," Skomal said.

OCEARCH is tracking about 20 sharks in the Atlantic and dozens more globally. Katharine was named in honor of Katharine Lee Bates, a Cape Cod native and songwriter best known for her poem and song America The Beautiful.

The real-time tracking has opened up the mysterious travels of great whites. For one, they swim south much faster and more randomly than once thought.

These awesome hunters can explode in quick bursts of speed, estimated conservatively at 30 mph.

"The beauty of the pings is that they give a very accurate sense of what these animals are doing," Skomal said.

Shark researchers already knew great whites migrated to the Southeast in late fall and early winter, but they don't know much about where they go over the long term or what they're doing at any given time.

In early 2013, Mary Lee popped up 200 yards off Jacksonville Beach, prompting the researchers to alert local authorities.

That great whites are being tracked so close to shore might be scary for some swimmers, but the researchers are quick to point out that their "hits" have huge errors that can be several miles and that the tracking is not intended for shark warnings.

Instead, they hope to reveal where these apex predators go and why, while raising awareness of the great white's plight — and that of other sharks worldwide.

And researchers say there's little to fear from Katharine or her ilk.

There has never been a documented great white attack off Florida.

But other mammals beware, especially endangered North Atlantic right whales: Katharine wants you for lunch.

"We've got some evidence that they will attack newborn calves," Skomal said. "They're probably targeting porpoises and dolphins in the near-shore areas, wherever these animals are easy to find."