Large great white sharks ‘converging’ off Carolinas. Is the weather a cause?

A sudden convergence of great white sharks is taking place off the Carolinas — from Cape Hatteras to Charleston — proving the apex predators are being mysteriously drawn to a tight strip off the coast.

Satellite tags reveal seven great whites are within that area, with an eighth hovering at the South Carolina-Georgia border, near Hilton Head.

Most (five) are sitting off Southport, near Wilmington.

The sharks, ranging in size from 8 to nearly 13 feet, represent a tiny sampling of what is hidden below the surface, experts say.

All are being tracked by the nonprofit OCEARCH, which is launching an expedition Thursday to study shark activity in a “foraging area” between Brunswick, Georgia, and Hilton Head.

OCEARCH noted in a Tuesday Facebook post that the same sharks “were spread out from Massachusetts to Florida” in November.

Expedition member Bryan Franks of Jacksonville University called the gathering “quite exciting.”

“When the sharks begin to converge in this few degrees of latitude that (shows) this is a very important region for these sharks during this time of year,” Franks said in a video posted by OCEARCH.

Why the sharks suddenly came together has not been explained. But Franks suggests warmer than average weather in Florida may have something to do it. Great white sharks apparently prefer cooler water, so they began to move, experts say.

“Some of the sharks who were south seemed to have moved north, and ... the stragglers from up north have made their way down now,” he says in the video. “I think we’re headed to the right spot where we have a lot of sharks converging at the same time.”

OCEARCH’s expedition team includes scientists and “master fishermen” partnering to “advance our understanding of health, reproduction and migratory patterns for Northwest Atlantic white sharks,” according to a release.

This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Large great white sharks ‘converging’ off Carolinas. Is the weather a cause?."