A great white shark made history last month by traveling more than 3,000 miles from South Carolina to Mexico.
Capt. Chip Michalov, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing, said Liebes is the westernmost great white shark ever tracked in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mishalove told Fox News Digital that in December 2023, he tagged a great white shark that was 14 feet long and weighed about 2,600 pounds.
“The big ones don’t appear until January or February, so I was really surprised to see the range of this stuff,” Michalov said.
“Just watching them swim makes the hairs on my neck stand up,” he added.
10 people died in unprovoked shark attacks last year, higher than global average, study finds: ‘A bit worrying’
Reeves the great white shark was first tagged in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in December 2023. (Captain Chip Mikalove)
Michalab, who worked with the Atlantic Great White Shark Conservation Society (AWSC) to tag and track sharks, said Liebes was a “home run” in their research efforts.
“And in terms of the whole pinging and tracking her, she turned out to be a home run,” Michalov told FOX News Digital. “She’s the first shark ever to be tagged in the Atlantic Ocean and swim all the way to the western Gulf of Mexico. And she’s singing as much as 200 meters from their shores.”
Captain Chip Michallove and Reeves. The charter fisherman said he was working with the Atlantic Great White Shark Conservancy (AWSC) to tag and track the shark. (Captain Chip Mikalove)
The charter fisherman said he has worked with AWSC for years and only a handful of tagged sharks make it into the Gulf of Mexico.
Newborn great white shark ‘first ever sighted’, possibly captured in California
Mishalove said Reeves “kept charging.”
“She just kept going. She kept charging. And she’s also the first person to go to Mexico,” he said. “As of this morning, she is outside of Corpus Christi, Texas.”
Ribes was tagged in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but traveled thousands of miles to the Gulf of Mexico. (Chip Mikalove)
Michalove explained that the data collected from LeeBeth supports research efforts.
Carcass of pregnant great white shark washes up on Florida coast
“I teamed up with some great, great white scientists who were experts in this field, and it was a great teamwork adventure,” Michalov said. “They’re getting data they’ve never had before, and they’re going to know what happens after I release them.”
Liebes made history by traveling from South Carolina to Mexico last month. (Chip Mikalove)
Mishalove said it was “wild” to see a large great white shark traveling thousands of miles.
“It was really wild watching the sharks,” he told FOX News Digital. “She’s a very vocal shark, because she spends a lot of time on the surface. That’s why we connect her satellites.”
“She’s traveling to areas we’ve never been to before,” he added.
Click here to sign up for our lifestyle newsletter
Mishalove said tracking Liebes has become a daily routine.
“That’s really cool! So the first thing I do is pick up my phone and see where she got the call,” he said. “And now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Capt. Chip Michallove believes Ribes may return north during the warmer months. (Captain Chip Mikalove)
Michalove said Lieves might move north to New England or Canada once the weather warms.
The shark tracker explained that large sharks commonly migrate between Canada and Florida, but never all the way to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“It’s really strange,” Michalov said. “This is definitely the first incident that the shark organization has pursued.”
For more lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
