9-foot great white shark migrates to Florida coast for winter

By Michael Lee Simpson

A 9ft great white shark named "Brass Bed" has been detected off Merritt Island, Florida.

The 433-lb juvenile female white shark, tagged in October 2025 near Nova Scotia's Mahone Bay, pinged on Feb. 7 northeast of Cape Canaveral.

John Tyminski, Senior Data Scientist at OCEARCH, said the detection represents part of a common winter migration route that researchers are finding to be far more extensive than previously understood.

Brass Bed's elusive movements are giving scientists fresh insight into white shark behavior and winter habitats.

"This is a common route that we see with white sharks at this time of year," Tyminski said.

"The overwintering area generally extends from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and then along the East Coast, and also into the Gulf of Mexico."

At 9ft 2in, Brass Bed was tagged through a collaboration between OCEARCH and the Tancook Islands Marine Field Station, led by Dr. Nigel Hussey.

The field station, established near Nova Scotia's Tancook Islands, has become a crucial research hub after OCEARCH's earlier work identified the area as critical to white sharks.

"Nigel has brought this to the next level, started a field station there where graduate students can be completely immersed in the community and environment," Tyminski said.

"They can stay there for months on end and learn more about how these white sharks are utilizing the habitat in Atlantic Canada."

The shark's name carries special meaning, rooted in maritime tradition.

"Years ago, a woman dreamed of owning a brass bed, but was instead gifted a handcrafted boat named Brass Bed, a vessel that became a beloved part of her family's life on the water," Tyminski said.

"Inspired by that story, the shark's name pays homage to this special bond between a boat and its name, a connection every mariner understands as a symbol of identity, pride, and enduring respect for the sea."

Brass Bed has proven to be an elusive subject for researchers.

"She's one that doesn't seem to be spending much time at the surface, or at least her tag is not giving us very regular pings," Tyminski said.

"We don't have a real good sense of her pattern, but most recently she's obviously shown this movement south along the east coast of Florida."

The research is yielding groundbreaking insights about white shark behavior in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tyminski revealed that upcoming research will detail the extent to which white sharks utilize Gulf waters during winter months.

"About two-thirds of the sharks that we've tagged have shown evidence of at some point going into the Gulf," he said.

"It's much more prevalent than we've understood previously."

Some sharks follow a predictable pattern along Florida's coast.

"Some of them will stop on East Florida, and others will go right around the tip of Florida, and then typically bend north and follow that West Florida escarpment up into the Eastern Gulf of Mexico," Tyminski said.

"We've had a couple of sharks off Mississippi and Alabama this year already."

The Tancook Islands Marine Field Station employs sophisticated tracking technology, including an underwater acoustic receiver network that detects tagged sharks as they move through Mahone Bay.

These acoustic tags, surgically implanted in the sharks, can last up to 10 years and provide researchers with detailed movement data.

As Brass Bed continues her southern journey, researchers are watching to see whether she'll join the growing number of sharks documented in Gulf waters.

The Cape Canaveral area, where she was recently detected, is known for its abundant marine life.

"That Cape Canaveral area in general seems to be a fairly productive area," Tyminski said.

"There seems to be a lot of food around there. It's generally considered a fairly sharky area."