Hilton the great white pays a visit

Published 11:29 am Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Hilton the great white shark paid a visit to the Outer Banks over the weekend.

The 1,326-pound shark pinged off the coast of the Hatteras Island’s Avon on Sunday, July 8, around 9:30 a.m., according to the Ocearch global shark-tracker program.

Ocearch tagged Hilton last year off Hilton Head, South Carolina, giving him his name. The 12-foot great white was last traveling north.

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It’s the third time this year Ocearch sharks have pinged off the Outer Banks.

In late March, George, a 9-foot-10 inch, 702-pound white shark tagged in Massachusetts in 2016, pinged about 25 miles off the coast of Ocracoke. He’s believed to be the son of Mary Lee, the great white made Internet-famous by Ocearch and Twitter in the last few years.

The next day, a tagged Mako shark named Oscar, weighing in at 320 pounds and 7 feet 8 inches long, pinged about 50 miles off the coast of Nags Head. Oscar was tagged in Cape Cod in 2015.

Ocearch is a Massachusetts-based organization dedicated to tracking and studying sharks in conjunction with conservation outreach and education.

Follow the travels of Hilton, George, Oscar and other sharks around the world at ocearch.org.