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Ironbound the great white shark pings off the coast of North Carolina

The OCEARCH shark tracker shows at least seven sharks have surfaced this month between Virginia Beach and Ocracoke Island.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Several sharks are on the move off of the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.

According to research group OCEARCH, at least seven sharks have so far surfaced this month between Virginia Beach and Ocracoke Island.

One of those sharks is an apex predator named after the unforgiving place where he was tagged by the team at OCEARCH: Ironbound Island in Nova Scotia!

Ironbound is over 12 feet long and weighs in at a whopping 1,000 pounds. Still, OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer describes the beast as "a very typical, small adult male white shark."

Over the last few weeks, Ironbound has been making the rounds along the east coast of the United States.

Credit: OCEARCH
Ironbound, a 12-foot great white shark, pinged off of Ocracoke earlier in the week.

His tracker pings each time he surfaces, and it shows he's recently paid visits to both the Jersey Shore as well as down to North Carolina's Ocracoke. 

Other sharks who recently paid visits to the Outer Banks include Ulysses and Tancook.

OCEARCH's missing is all about conserving and destigmatizing these white sharks.

You may remember Mary Lee, the 4,000-pound female great white that was tagged by OCEARCH back in 2012.

"I think she did more to undo what 'Jaws' has done than any other shark in the world," said Fischer. "Because people started to realize that they're swimming all around us. If they thrive, we thrive and appreciate them more like lions."

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