So, what’s this great white shark doing here? The same as the others

If you were a great white shark, where would you rather winter?

In the frigid waters off a New England summer resort town or the warmer waters of a year-round resort community south of Sunny Isles Beach?

Just like you, Savannah, the nearly nine-foot, 460-pound great white has opted for the latter.

Savannah was spotted about a mile off Miami-Dade’s Haulover Park on Sunday night. The shark was tagged and tracked by Ocearch, a marine research group, off the South Carolina coast in May 2017. Savannah “pinged” — when the shark’s dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water and sends a signal to a satellite overhead — at 10:37 p.m. Sunday.

She’s a good swimmer. Savannah has been pinging more than 3,500 miles since she was tagged and made it as far north as Nova Scotia last summer before seeking warmer waters. Before making it to Haulover over the weekend, she’d been tracked off the Port St. Lucie coast on Jan. 9.

Savannah’s not alone. Ocearch is also tracking Miss Costa, a 12-footer, who visited Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park in December and in the Gulf on Jan. 8.

George, a nine-footer, transmitted his signal from where Miss Costa has been, the Dry Tortugas, on Jan. 8. And Harry Etta, a 12-footer, was seen in St. Augustine on Jan. 8.

Of course, this doesn’t mean John Williams’ “Jaws” score needs to be piped onto Haulover sands. Sure, a shark, thought to be a bull, took a bite of a nude bather’s legs in July at Haulover’s nude beach. But shark attacks are still rare on Miami-Dade beaches.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 3:53 PM with the headline "So, what’s this great white shark doing here? The same as the others."