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In a campaign to protect sharks, a controversial research group is trying to disrupt traditional science

- Chelsea Murray

A white shark is human fear made flesh. It shears the water like a missile targeting its prey, with conveyor-belt rows of serrated teeth and skin so rough it was once used as sandpaper. From a primordial perspective, our fear of these creatures is understandable. But we’re a peculiar species, fascinated by what terrifies us. From Jaws to Shark Week to any news about the long-extinct megalodon, sharks occupy an intersection between terror and entrancement. So when one starts tweeting, of course we follow.

In March 2017, an American research group called Ocearch caught a 600-kilogram, 3.7-metre-long white shark off Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, bolted a flashlight-sized satellite transmitter to his dorsal fin, and named him Hilton. Thanks to Ocearch’s Global Shark Tracker app, researchers and even amateur shark enthusiasts could watch Hilton’s migration as he stormed up and down the eastern seaboard.

Ocearch gives many of its transmitter-tagged sharks Twitter accounts run by a team of staff, volunteers, and scientists. As a part of its program to connect more people with ocean life, it’s working: with nearly 50,000 followers, Hilton (along with @MaryLeeShark and @RockStarLydia), is a minor celebrity. To counter the popular depictions of bloodthirsty predators, Ocearch presents @HiltonTheShark as just a jaunty guy on the hunt for food and love. On January 20, for instance, along with a GiF of a white shark leaping out of the water, his account tweeted: “Doin’ my happy dance here off the coast of Georgia . . . dance with me everybody!” A few months after Ocearch caught him in 2017, Hilton was swimming (and tweeting) along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast, and that summer, he became the province’s unofficial mascot.