Great white shark 'Mary Lee' detected near Hamptons

The great white shark Mary Lee is vacationing near Long Island for the second straight year. The shark's tracker was detected off-shore near the Hamptons yesterday. Pings registered near Wainscott,

News 12 Staff

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May 14, 2016, 6:38 AM

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Updated 3,143 days ago

The great white shark Mary Lee is vacationing near Long Island for the second straight year.

The shark's tracker was detected off-shore near the Hamptons yesterday. Pings registered near Wainscott, Sagaponack and East Hampton, according to the science and tracking organization, Ocearch.

The shark was last in the area one year ago off Fire Island.

"It's great news for us, actually for the environment," says Joe Yaiullo, of the Long Island Aquarium. "The waters are warming, and they're gonna follow the food. The food is migrating north."

He also says beachgoers shouldn't be too worried because sharks don't generally try to eat humans.

"If we were on their menus, they'd be lining up off Jones Beach, waiting for the millions of people to go swimming," he says.

Mary Lee is roughly 16 feet long and 3,500 pounds, according to experts. She was tagged in 2012 and has since traveled more than 34,000 miles up and down the East Coast.

Mary Lee's Twitter account now has more than 95,000 followers.