Great white shark from Mexico pays a visit

A female great white shark tagged in 2012 off Guadalupe Island, which lies about 165 miles west of Ensenada in Baja California, has made her way north toward the islands off Southern California. It's the first time a tagged Guadalupe Island shark has been tracked into the local waters, says outdoors journalist Pete Thomas. The northbound great white passed the Cortes Bank, about 100 miles off the coast of Orange County, and was nearing San Clemente Island. That's her in the photo above.

Great White sharks in the northeastern Pacific are known to have site fidelity during the fall and early winter to either Guadalupe Island or Northern California elephant seal rookeries, such as the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco.

During this time of year, however, the vast majority of adult white sharks from both aggregation regions are hundreds of miles offshore, in areas stretching as far as Hawaii.

Interestingly, sharks tagged at Guadalupe Island have never visited Northern California white shark aggregation sites. At least two sharks tagged off the Bay Area have been tracked to Guadalupe.

By the way, there is an iPhone and iPad app for tracking Pacific sharks made available by the Marine Conservation Science Institute, which tagged this female great white shark and dubbed her Arden Grace.