Earlier this week, a great white shark "pinged" off the coast of Vancouver Island, researchers say. The shark is a mature female that measures around five metres in length and weighs approximately 1,000 kilograms. She has been named Kara by researchers, who are thrilled to see her in northern waters.
Kara was one of six sharks fitted with a tracking device in October 2025 near Point Conception in California. The device "pings" when a shark is at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water for several minutes, giving an approximate location.
"I've been studying these white sharks for almost 30 years, and this is the first one that's gone this far north," said Michael Domeier, who is with the Marine Conservation Science Institute and is behind the program tracking Kara.
Domeier, who is based out of Hawaii, says the program was designed to help track female sharks to see where they are giving birth, studying the animals in California and Mexico.
While the ping is exciting, Domeier says that sharks in Canadian Pacific waters aren’t an anomaly, and that sharks have been recorded as far north as Alaska.
