A viral social media graphic claims two tagged great white sharks—“Kara” and “Alyssa”—are moving toward the Texas coast. It’s spreading fast, and at first glance, it looks believable. There’s a map, named sharks, and specific locations along the Gulf.
But when you check the actual tracking data, the story completely falls apart.
The image shows a Texas Gulf Coast map with markers near Galveston, Houston, and Corpus Christi. It suggests both sharks are approaching the area. The problem is simple—it’s mixing real sharks with the wrong ocean.
“Kara” is a real tagged great white shark, but she is not anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. She’s a Pacific animal.
She was tagged on October 20, 2025, off California by the Marine Conservation Science Institute and is tracked through the Expedition White Shark app. Kara is a 16-foot female, and her movement history is exactly what you would expect from a Pacific white shark. She has stayed along the West Coast and moved as far north as the Pacific Northwest.
As of April 11, Kara’s most recent location is off Northern California near Eureka.
“Alyssa” is also real—and even larger.
She was tagged on December 11, 2025, by the same research team and is also tracked through the Expedition White Shark app. At around 18 feet, she’s one of the bigger white sharks currently being followed.
As of April 11, Alyssa is far offshore of San Francisco, still firmly in the Pacific.
That’s the key detail the viral post leaves out.
For either of these sharks to be approaching Texas, they would have to travel from the Pacific Ocean, cross an entire continent, and enter the Gulf of Mexico. There is no scientific record of a Pacific-tagged great white ever doing that.
Great white sharks are not global wanderers. They belong to distinct regional populations and follow predictable migration routes. Pacific sharks stay in the Pacific. Atlantic sharks are the ones occasionally seen in the Gulf. You can read more in our guide to great white sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Great white sharks like “LeeBeth” tagged by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy have popped up in Texas waters. But this viral posts misses reality big time.
A few things worth knowing:
- Pacific white sharks stay within West Coast and offshore Pacific migration zones
- Atlantic sharks are the ones that can appear in the Gulf of Mexico
- There has never been a verified case of a Pacific-tagged white shark entering the Gulf
That matters because the Gulf has its own shark story. While great whites do show up here seasonally, the species people are far more likely to encounter are covered in our look at the largest sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.
What this graphic does is take two real sharks from the Expedition White Shark tracking program and place them on a Texas map. That creates a story that feels real—but isn’t.
This is exactly the kind of misinformation that spreads easily right now. In the AI and social media age, it only takes a real name, a map, and a little editing to create something that looks legitimate. Most people never check the source.
It also feeds the same kind of confusion that has long distorted public understanding of sharks in general. We’ve written before about how species are often misunderstood and misidentified, including in our piece on the bull shark conspiracy and why other sharks may get blamed for attacks.
That’s why we built GulfGreatWhites.com.
We do our best to stay on top of real tracking data, real sightings, and real shark movement—so you don’t have to sort through viral posts and guess what’s true. If you want accurate updates about sharks in the Gulf, this is exactly the kind of situation where it pays to follow a source that checks the facts.
Right now, the data is clear. Kara is near Eureka, California. Alyssa is far offshore of San Francisco. Both are in the Pacific, thousands of miles from Texas.
These are massive Pacific white sharks but they are nowhere near the Gulf.
If you want to know where sharks really are, follow the data and follow sources that take the time to get it right.
Chester Moore
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