Katie Park

@kathspark

CAPE MAY - Mary Lee, a 17-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark, was pinged Monday morning as swimming about 20 miles from Cape May, according to the shark's most recent GPS tracking result.

On Saturday afternoon, Mary Lee was detected with a male great white named Cisco.

Mary Lee was tagged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 2012 and has been known to travel up and down the East Coast.

About a month prior, on April 22, the shark was said to be off the coast of Georgia.

More:Mary Lee the shark heading toward NJ waters

More:Blue Angels roar over Millville

Chris Fisher, the person who tagged and named the shark in 2012 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, said he believed Mary Lee was heading north and would end up in the Nantucket or Cape Cod area, where she would mate again.

Fisher, who founded OCEARCH, a non-profit that researches great white sharks and other apex predators, said great whites leave wintering grounds — thought to be around the southeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico — when temperatures exceed the upper 60s. Then, they seek cooler water.

"If we understand their life cycle, then we'll be able to help them succeed and move our large sharks toward abundance," Fisher told the Press earlier. "As these big white sharks go, so does the entire ocean because they balance the marine environment."