{"id":43506,"date":"2020-04-16T18:13:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T22:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=43506"},"modified":"2020-04-16T18:13:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T22:13:07","slug":"just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=43506","title":{"rendered":"Just when you thought it was safe to…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…go back in the water, Katharine has returned!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

Katharine is a Great White. Shark, that is. And her meanderings have been followed since 2013 via a dorsal fin tracking device applied to her, um, dorsal fin off Cape Cod, by a very clever and careful crew from Ocearch, a non-profit fish research group.<\/p>\n

When I first heard about Katharine I paid her some attention, because my family grew us up on the Cape during the summers and a bunch of family members still live there. So, thinking about the all the little kid cousins swimming around in Cape waters, I did think uneasily about Katharine.<\/p>\n

However my dis-ease, Katharine became a celebrity.<\/p>\n

For years, Katharine, who is named after Katharine Lee Bates<\/a>, the writer of the verses to \u201cAmerica the Beautiful,\u201d delighted the public, especially when she drew near coastlines, as reports of her whereabouts appeared on Ocearch\u2019s online tracking map<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her Twitter account<\/a> (\u201cmisunderstood but sassy girl just tryin\u2019 to get some fish\u201d) gained more than 61,000 followers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her Twitter account was followed by many, many more people than follow my<\/em> Twitter account. Maybe because I don’t have fins and sharp teeth and am not a predator. What can I do? Can’t change what I am.<\/p>\n

Katharine wandered, went to Florida like so many teenage girls and other people. (Not me, though, another quality that differentiates me from Katharine.) And developed a large fan base down there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people in Florida just fell in love with her,\u201d said Chris Fischer, the founder of Ocearch. \u201cShe became the ambassador, the diplomat for the ocean.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Uh, but not I think a diplomat for ocean beaches crammed with kids on spring break.<\/p>\n

I’d suggest that Floridians are crazy, except we knew that even before Katharine. I mean, they elected Ron DeSantis<\/a> as their governor, following Gov Rick Scott<\/a>, now their senator.<\/p>\n

However, I am meandering. Back to Katharine:<\/p>\n

And then came May 12, 2019. A ping placed her about 150 miles off the coast of Charleston, S.C.<\/em><\/p>\n

After that, nothing. She was not heard from again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Had she died? Was she looking for a bigger boat? Was she practicing social distancing<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n

Nobody could tell what had happened to her. Maybe she was dead, maybe she ate someone who didn’t agree with her.<\/p>\n

But no!! At the end of last month, a ping was heard, and then some others, placing her off the coast of Virginia.<\/p>\n

I’ve got a lot of favorite paragraphs and lines from this wonderfully written piece by Christopher Mele. (The Times hard copy head is the best: “Found, Followed and Then Lost, a Great White Shark Resurfaces.”)<\/p>\n

Maybe my favorite line is:<\/p>\n

Katharine was not considered a full adult when she was tagged in 2013, but she has likely added 1,000 pounds since then…<\/em><\/p>\n

She’s grown up. Consider that for a while.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…go back in the water, Katharine has returned!!! Katharine is a Great White. Shark, that is. And her meanderings have been followed since 2013 via a dorsal fin tracking device applied to her, um, dorsal fin off Cape Cod, by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4775,1175],"tags":[5469,5472,5471,5468,5467,5470,3455,5473],"class_list":["post-43506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-news","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-cape-cod","tag-chris-fischer","tag-christopher-mele","tag-katharine-great-white","tag-katharine-lee-bates","tag-ocearch","tag-rick-scott","tag-ron-desantis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t