A gigantic 12-foot-long, 1,000-pound great white shark was tracked off of Long Island’s East End in late June — and the largest great white ever discovered in the Atlantic Ocean could be trailing behind.
The behemoth shark, a female named “Ernst,” first pinged on June 20 off of Montauk’s coast as she made her way toward Cape Cod before heading further north — where experts believe an even bigger, 14-foot, 1,700-pound great white named “Contender” is now heading, according to OCEARCH’s shark tracker.
Both sharks seem to be taking similar routes from Florida and traveling up north along the East Coast, likely to pass by Long Island this summer if the fish follow the same pattern, data from the shark tracker reviewed by The Post show.
“White sharks in the western North Atlantic typically migrate north and spend the summer and early fall foraging in the waters of Cape Cod or Atlantic Canada,” a spokesperson for OCEARCH told The Sun about the shark’s migration patterns.
Contender is currently near the Pamlico Sound in North Carolina, while Ernst has made her way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, according to the shark tracker.
The discovery comes as experts reveal there has been a spike in shark sightings and bites this year.
This month alone, authorities have temporarily red-flagged or even fully shuttered beaches from Long Island to The Rockaways over an alleged “swarm” of suspected bull sharks, which are typically found in warmer climates, while a swimmer had his foot bitten, leaving their bone exposed, off Jones Beach by a suspected shark.
Authorities across Long Island have now been ramping up their shark patrols with boats on the water and advanced drones hovering above the coast to monitor the prehistoric predators.
But despite the precautions, experts warned it’s hard to know what the fish will do.
“It’s unpredictable what’s going to happen this season,” Frank Quevedo, an environmental scientist and executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum, previously told The Post.
