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15-footer among 'cluster' of great white sharks tracked off Carolina coast

OUTER BANKS, N.C. — A massive great white shark weighing more than 2,100 pounds is making its way to the coast of North Carolina, according to researchers who are tracking it.

Researchers with great white shark research organization OCEARCH wrote in a Facebook post that the 15-foot, 2,137-pound female shark, named Luna, “pinged” last week off the coast of the Carolinas.

Luna was over the Charleston Bump, "a deepwater bottom feature 80 to 100 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was headed toward the Outer Banks.

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OCEARCH has been tracking Luna for months. She began traveling south from the Canadian coast in October 2018 and made it to the tip of Florida before turning around and heading toward the Carolinas.

Luna is one of eight great white sharks currently being tracked by OCEARCH off the Carolinas. The sharks are believed to be eating fish dragged north by the Gulf Stream, OCEARCH researchers said.