Ping delays

So I've gotten a lot of grief via tweet that I'm not pinging as often as YOU would like. 

While I really enjoy chatting with you #sillyhumans, sometimes I just can't get to the surface. I'm trying to travel the distance of Houston to Boston using only my fins and tail.

Let's see how many of you can do that on your feet in as many days - while constantly checking in on Facebook or Four Square.  I mean I know you do it in your cars - but if you were on your feet you'd be tired and hungry. 

I love that you are all following me, but maybe the most important message I can impart - besides that you humans are #notmyflavor - is patience. 

On a different note, had a great mini reunion with Genie, Mary Lee and Lydia.  

Now I'm heading home to my splashing grounds while my buddy Chris and the team are chillin' during #ExpeditionBrazil. I really do wish them the very best and hope they have safe travels. 

See you in an hour, or a day, or a week, or whenever I decide to rise to the surface again.

Happy Birthday, America

OK, so I'm a creature of the ocean. Really I have no allegiance to a "country" per se. However, I have this really strong connection to the United States.

It's shores are beautiful and bountiful (yes, even New Jersey).

While other countries allow for sharks to be dragged on board their ships to be stripped of their fins and dumped back into the ocean to die, the U.S. is actually making moves to protect sharks - like the decision this week to protect hammerheads. (See the story: http://on.flatoday.com/1lDwjw1 - thanks to @OCEARCH for tweeting the link)

All sharks should be protected - but especially hammerheads. As I've explained on Twitter, we don't call them hammerheads because of the shape of their heads. We call them hammerheads because, quite frankly, they are as dumb as a bag of hammers.

But I'm getting away from my point...

My point is that while you're all celebrating your independence, I, too, am celebrating a country that seems to be getting a better understanding of its role in protecting the oceans. Maybe you #SillyHumans aren't so silly after all.

And to show you my appreciation, here's a little number written by my namesake, Katharine Bates. Truly beautiful "From Sea to Shining Sea"

I know most of you probably appreciate the Ray Charles version better... but I figured if there's a #SillyHuman who is almost as much of a diva as I am, why not show her some love. :)



Happy Birthday America!

Time to reveal part of my dark past

Everyone... this is Larry.



This video was sent to me on Twitter by @NYCRobin - asking if this was a friend of mine. As soon as his nose broke the surface, I knew.

Shortly after I was tagged by Ocearch.org back in August, Larry and I met off New Jersey.

 Now if you've been following my story for a while, you'll know that I'm not a fan of the Garden State. As I've said before, I kid New Jersey because... well... it's New Jersey. The water off the Jersey Shore is always really greasy and there's an unusual amount of pee. I realize Superstorm Sandy was tragic for many humans, but for the #sharkworld, it actually helped wash away a lot of the issues that were in the water there. But the water isn't why I hold a grudge against the big N.J. - it's Larry.

See (I can't believe I'm admitting this) Larry and I dated briefly. At first things were great, but then I started noticing my stuff missing. After about a week or so, I realized Larry was a thief. He would take e'ry thing. Coral, pearls, ... shoot... he'd steal the teeth out yo mouth.

I woke up one night and he was trying to take the tracker off my fin. That's when I knew I had to go. So I started swimming south and well, you can follow my path from there.

But as I watched the video, I was really surprised by the #SillyHumans in the boat. Here they are with a bag of yummy food hanging over the side of their boat and their actually surprised that Larry came up and took it. For realz?

Look we aren't all like Larry, but if you dangle food out over the water, of course we're going to take it. But we aren't the only ones that will still your stuff. See below - and these aren't even food...

Exhibit A: Octopus will steal your stuff.


Exhibit B: Lions will steal your stuff.


Exhibit C: And Crabs. Crabs will steal your stuff.


And birds? Birds will steal your baby...


Just sayin'. If you leave you're stuff out... we're likely to take it.

What does a shark with too much time on her fins do? Starts a blog

Hey, so maybe its the warm water messing with my head or the snapper, mutated by lingering BP oil, I munched on last night, but I got this crazy idea to start posting things here.

For starters, and for all you #sillyhumans that haven't found me on Twitter yet, my name is Katharine. They call me Kat for short. I'm a great white shark who was tagged by the research organization Ocearch in August of 2013.

Since then I've traveled nearly 4,000 miles - from Cape Cod down the Eastern seaboard, around Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. I've popped my dorsal fin out of the water hundreds of times, sending a signal to GPS satellites and creating a ping that Ocearch tracks in real time. 

At first, I thought it was kind of like an ex-boyfriend that wouldn't stop following me (#stalker), but then I found Twitter and discovered more of Ocearch's mission and found my voice. I've talked to all kind of humans - some tiny, some full grown, some really funny, some really scared of me. I'm learning a lot about you. 

But I'll share more about all that history stuff later. 

What you need to know now is that 144 characters aren't enough to answer all your questions. I'll still be on Twitter, but sometimes I just need to explain myself and my thoughts in greater detail - and you know "Ima keep it real."

Thanks for reading, thanks for tracking, thanks for tweeting, but most of all, thanks for keeping an open mind. #ReplaceFearWithFacts.