great white shark texas Archives - Higher Calling Wildlife

Our story on a great white shark showing up just a couple of hundred yards from the surf at South Padre Island went viral.

On Feb. 26, “LeeBeth,” a 14.1 foot, 2,600-pound female fitted with a satellite tag by Capt. Chip Michalove of Outcast Sport Fishing shocked shark lovers when she showed up in Texas.

She was tagged December 8, 2023, off the coast of South Carolina and took an amazing journey that continues as she “pings” all over the Gulf.

You can read that story here.

That means her fin has breached the surface and she has made satellite contact and most recently south of Sabine Pass, TX.

LeeBeth in all of her glory. Photo courtesy Capt. Michalove.

Michalove said this particular shark has pinged more than any other of the 47 he has tagged for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Since Dec. 26, this shark moved down into Mexican waters, back up toward South Padre and on March 7 was due south of Sabine Pass, TX, approximately 125 miles offshore.

Will she move closer to shore? Perhaps she will move toward Florida.

LeeBeth is a real treat to watch and she is highly unpredictable.

UPDATE 3/09: Heres’ exclusive story about another great white out Sabine Pass. Click here.

The work the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and Capt. Michalove are doing is amazing.

This particular ping is intriguing to me because it goes back to an early part of my career in 2005 when an offshore charter captain friend called me on a satellite phone 55 miles out of Sabine Pass with a great white sighting.

This began in-depth research on the topic and spawned several award-winning stories including one from the Texas Outdoor Writer’s Association in 2022 for my article “Jaws In Texas Waters” for Texas Fish & Game.

Some didn’t think whites existed in Gulf waters, but the amazing work from Ocearch and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has proven otherwise.

Look for more articles coming soon here on great whites in the Gulf of Mexico as well as a forthcoming summer-long shark series.

Click on the “Subscribe to This Blog” link to get updates when I post new content. It’s at the bottom of the post on mobile and on the right side on dektops/laptops.

Look for more on great white sharks in the Gulf of Mexico coming very soon.

Chester Moore

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A great white shark has been verified about 200 yards off the beach at South Padre Island, TX.

“LeeBeth,” a 14.1 foot, 2,600-pound female, was fitted with a satellite tag by Capt. Chip Michalove of Outcast Sport Fishing on December 8, 2023, off the coast of South Carolina.

Listen to our conversation with Capt. Michalove on this special edition of mHigher Calling Wildlife-the podcast. Click here to listen to our investigative podcast or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, IHeartradio, etc.

Click to listen to a brief conversation with Capt. Chip Michalove.

Michalove tags for the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and said although other Atlantic-tagged sharks have shown up in the Gulf of Mexico, this one made a bee-line for the Lone Star State.

“Most stopped around the Mississippi River, but LeeBeth kept going. She’s traveled 2,000 miles since we caught her off Hilton Head,” Michalove said.

UPDATE MARCH 7: Click here to read about her appearance near Sabine Pass, TX hundreds of miles from South Padre.

“Acadia,” a 1,000-pound female great white tagged by research group Ocearch in Nova Scotia in September 2020, pinged in Feb. 2021, about 140 miles off the coast of Galveston.

“Leebeth,” however, went hundreds of miles further south and much closer to the shore.

UPDATE March 9: Read an exclusive story about another great white shark sighting at Sabine Pass.

She is also “pinging” more than previous sharks.

“The tags only signal back to the satellite when the shark swims near the surface and the fin breaches the water. She’s been pinging a lot, which has given us a great look into her movements,” Michalove said.

LeeBeth in all of her glory. (Photo courtesy Chip Michalove)

In the 1963 book Shadows In the Sea; Sharks, Skates & Rays, the presence of great whites in Texas waters is mentioned as far back as the 1950s.

“A great white shark seven feet long was caught in 15 fathoms, 12 miles off Port Aransas, Texas, on February 9, 1950. Seven days later, a second great white, 11 feet, 4 inches long, was caught in the same area. Ten days later, a third, this one 12 feet, 2 inches long, was caught there.”

Check out our latest update on a pink dolphin and a shocking number of marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico here.

NOAA has some interesting older data on great whites in the Gulf of Mexico. Their earliest recorded white shark was off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, on a set line in the winter of 1937. Another specimen was caught in the same area in 1943.

In February 1965, a female was captured in a net intended for bottlenose dolphins at Mullet Key near St. Petersburg. In addition, National Marine Fisheries Service officials reported 35 great whites as bycatch in the Japanese longline fishery in the Gulf from 1979 through 1982.

Michalove has tagged 47 great whites off the coast of South Carolina and said although he has been fascinated with great whites his whole life, his respect for them has only grown.

“They are so intelligent and are truly amazing creatures. It just blows me away that I can be a part of helping science understand these great and, in many ways, mysterious creatures.”

Follow Capt. Michalove and his shark-tagging adventures on Instagram @outcast_sport_fishing