Great white shark Ripple tracked off Canada coast after traveling 350 miles in a week
A great white shark named Ripple is currently making waves off the coast of Nova Scotia. Scientists from the nonprofit research group OCEARCH first tagged the sub-adult male in September 2025 near the Tancook Islands. At the time of tagging, he measured 11 feet 6 inches and weighed 778 pounds.
Since that initial encounter, Ripple has covered significant distance. He traveled over 8,000 miles, moving down the East Coast and through the waters around Florida and the Gulf. He has now returned to Canadian waters, recently pinging about 45 miles off the coast of Cape Breton. This marks the northernmost point where researchers have tracked him.
His movement is part of a larger migration pattern that brings sharks into cooler, food-rich northern waters during the summer months. In the coming weeks, Ripple may move further northeast toward Newfoundland or venture into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to feed.
Researchers track these movements to better understand how sharks impact ocean life. The public can follow Ripple and hundreds of other monitored sea creatures through the OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker application.