JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. -- The great white shark nicknamed Mary Lee is getting pretty comfortable swimming around in our warm waters.
Mary Lee, who measures 16 feet and weighs 3,456 pounds, has a GPS-tracking device attached to her dorsal fin that has pinged several times in the past two days.
Yesterday, she was tracked to less than 10 miles off our coast.
The latest ping happened after 4 p.m. today. The shark tracker showed Mary Lee swimming east of Ponte Vedra Beach.
While Mary Lee, and her slightly smaller friend Genie, do not pose a major threat to people on the beach, surfers should use caution and not go too far out to sea.
Knowing that one of nature's greatest predators is lurking in our waters was enough get one long-time local surfer to think twice about hitting the waves.
"It'll keep me out of the water for a few days," said Jeff Maxwell, surfer.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reaches out to local fisherman to help track of these animals.
Marshal Wills, a recreational fisherman with Jacksonville Street Sharks, frequently helps NOAA put GPS tracking devices on sharks.
According to Wills, the devices are vital to studying great whites.
"That way we can find out, 'OK here's where they're breeding,' we can go ahead and make federal laws against long lining and gill nets so we can sustain that fishery," said Wills.
Wills tells Action News we shouldn’t be afraid of becoming Mary Lee’s or Genie's lunch, we just need to be aware of our surroundings.
"We're not part of the shark's food chain they don't want to eat us. All the bites that you see are usually investigative bites, meaning a fish may be swimming by your leg and all of sudden the shark is going to eat it and he accidentally runs into your leg," said Wills.
Track Mary Lee and Genie through the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker.
