Great White Sharks Turn Up in Gulf Sanctuary
Nine tagged sharks crossed from the Atlantic, a first for this protected reef system, with prey supply now the open question.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Environmental
Researchers detected nine great white sharks around the coral reefs of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary between 2022 and 2025, the first documented great white occurrences in this protected area. The findings, from a study led by LSU associate professor Michael Dance, were published in September; the sharks are research-stage observations rather than a new capability.
Why it matters
Discoveries of great white sharks west of the Mississippi River are historically rare, so the detections suggest the species is moving through Gulf waters the Atlantic-focused tracking had not mapped. Researchers are now asking whether the Gulf can supply enough prey to keep the sharks local or whether they will be pushed back toward the Atlantic.
The data comes from an acoustic receiver array the LSU and Texas A&M researchers established in 2022, which logged nine tagged great white sharks that had been tagged along the Atlantic coast and then traveled into the Gulf. The count of nine is a detection total over three years, not a population estimate for the Gulf.
The players
Michael Dance
Associate professor in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences at LSU who runs the Fisheries and Movement Ecology Lab, which leads the tracking work.
Texas A&M University
University whose researchers partnered with the LSU lab to establish the acoustic receiver array used to document the sharks.
Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Protected Gulf of Mexico marine sanctuary whose coral reefs were the site of the detections.
The details
The study relied on acoustic tags: researchers first tagged great white sharks along the eastern coast between South Carolina and Massachusetts, and each tag emits a signal that fixed underwater receivers can pick up when a shark passes within range. The LSU lab, run by Michael Dance, partnered with Texas A&M researchers to establish the receiver array in 2022, which let the team document when tagged sharks visited the sanctuary's coral reefs. Over three years, nine of the sharks made the journey from the Atlantic into the Gulf.
Timeline
2022: LSU and Texas A&M researchers establish the acoustic receiver array.
2022-2025: Nine great white sharks are detected around the sanctuary's reefs.
September: Researchers publish a paper detailing the findings.
The Tech Race
Acoustic receiver arrays like the one LSU and Texas A&M built are the main tool for following marine animals across wide areas, and this network is now being used to map a species' movement into a new basin. The study adds Gulf of Mexico data to an Atlantic-weighted record, which will shape how future tracking programs place their receivers.
For most readers this is a research finding with no direct change to daily life. It matters mainly to Gulf coastal communities and fisheries managers who will need to account for a protected species appearing in new waters.
The takeaway
The Gulf detections change the picture of where great white sharks travel, so the question to watch is whether follow-up studies find sustained residence or only transit through the sanctuary. Future publications from the LSU and Texas A&M tracking work are the place those answers will appear.
Further reading
For more on how scientists track marine species, explore our Environmental coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Reveille.
