UPDATE: A representative from OCEARCH contacted Brevard Times to say that the ping has been removed.

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COCOA, Florida – A 9 feet-8 inches-long Great White shark weighing 533 pounds was tracked swimming in the Indian River near Cocoa, Florida just north of State Road 528 at 11:14 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2020.

It must be a tight squeeze for the apex predator. That’s because the Indian River Lagoon estuary only averages 4 feet deep.

The Canaveral Lock, the closest navigational point between the open ocean and the Indian River Lagoon, was reopened by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to navigation on April 3, 2020, after being closed for months for repairs.

Named ‘Cabot’ by OCEARCH researchers, this sub-adult male Great White shark was tagged with a transponder off the coast of Nova Scotia in October 2018.

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) population has been growing along the U.S. East Coast, according to a study by NOAA Fisheries.

The study also found that great white sharks occur primarily between Massachusetts and New Jersey during the summer, off Florida during winter, and with a broad distribution along the U.S. East Coast during spring and fall.

To stay up-to-date on the Florida Great White sharks’ latest locations, visit the Ocearch tracking map.