The travels of Mary Lee, an adult great white shark with a tagging device, have been well publicized, but it's possible the public has heard the last of her.

The tag on the shark's dorsal fin has not been detected by satellite since 6:54 a.m. June 17, when she was swimming off the coast of Beach Haven.

Chris Fischer, the founder of OCEARCH, the research group that tagged the apex predator and had the only known human contact with her, said it's conceivable the five-year battery life on the tag has expired.

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"We might hear from her again, but we might not. Her tag may have run its course," said Fischer, who is confident the shark is alive.

"She's the queen of the ocean. She's a 50-year-old or so mature white shark that absolutely dominates wherever she goes," said Fischer.

Mary Lee is an adult Carcharodon carcharias, the scientific name for a great white shark. Recent studies have found the sharks can live into their 70s.

She weighed 3,456 pounds and measured 16 feet when she was tagged. She could be bigger now.

If Mary Lee's habits have taught Fischer anything, she could be headed to Georgia or Florida on the Southeast coast, where's she's been every winter the last five years, according to OCEARCH's Global Shark Tracker.

OCEARCH, a non-profit research group, is tagging great white sharks to study their life cycle.

Mary Lee was tagged Sept. 17, 2012, when she was captured off the coast of Cape Cod in a game of "cat and mouse" that took 1 ½-hours to bring her to the vessel, Fischer said. He named the shark after his mother.

SPOT TAG

A SPOT tag was put on Mary Lee's dorsal fin. DNA samples were also taken. A SPOT tag is a satellite tag that records a shark's movements in real time.

The dorsal fin has to be above the surface for 90 seconds in order for it to be picked up by the satellite. That means Mary Lee's tag could still be working, but that she has not come to the surface long enough since June to be detected.

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Why and how often great white sharks surface is not well known to researchers. What is known is, they do not need to come to the surface for oxygen.

Out of more than 300 sharks that OCEARCH has tagged in its 10 years of existence, Fischer said the longest a tag lasted was eight years and that was on "one shark."

Mary Lee is the shark that put OCEARCH on the map and saved the research group from going under.

One of the people responsible for that is shark enthusiast Jo O'Keefe, 72, of Carolina Shores, North Carolina. In 2013, she started watching Mary Lee's track as the shark was coming down the coast.

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"I called TV stations and newspapers in each city she was approaching and explained the entire GPS global tracking system, took them to the website, taught them how to track her," said O'Keefe. "OCEARCH did not know why Mary Lee was getting famous until months later when I contacted them."

Mary Lee became a media sensation overnight which led to a $3 million sponsorship from Caterpillar, maker of diesel engines, Fischer said.

Fischer said Mary Lee is helping undo the fear of great white sharks created by Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster "Jaws."

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"When I first heard about Mary Lee I thought it was a great opportunity for kids to learn about these sharks," said O'Keefe.

Dan Radel: 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com