In the minds of many, the fearsome white shark is a loner. It cares solely about meals, not its personal form. But new analysis signifies that a number of the creatures may very well have associates.

Scientists with Ocearch, a corporation that research sharks and different marine life, have found two male white sharks that may very well be described as “buddies,” they mentioned. The two animals have been touring collectively since final December, after they had been fitted with satellite tv for pc tags off the coast of Georgia, Ocearch reported.

“We’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” Bob Hueter, the chief scientist at Ocearch, said in a video posted to the group’s Facebook web page this week.

The two sharks, named Simon and Jekyll, swam “together in tandem” for greater than 4,000 miles up the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, south of Quebec, the place trackers final positioned them in late July, Dr. Hueter mentioned within the video. When one was tagged on Dec. 4 and the opposite on Dec. 9, the fish had been roughly 9 ft lengthy and weren’t but of mating age.

Researchers at Ocearch are actually testing blood samples from the sharks, which they collected in December, to see whether or not they may very well be siblings or half siblings. The findings may elevate new questions on white shark migration patterns and relationships, and spawn new approaches to shark conservation, Dr. Hueter mentioned in a cellphone interview on Wednesday.

At least since Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel “Jaws” and its celebrated movie adaptation, Americans have regarded white sharks with each worry and awe. But as overfishing brings the shark inhabitants to the point of extinction, scientists have pushed for a brand new understanding of sharks as creatures to be protected, not demonized. The lack of sharks, who’re apex predators, may disrupt the steadiness of complete marine ecosystems and threaten the meals safety of many international locations.

The Ocearch findings are a part of a broader physique of analysis that has emerged in recent times that’s difficult the general public impression of white sharks as delinquent creatures, mentioned Yannis Papastamatiou, an ecologist at Florida International University in Miami.

“Some species of shark can form quite strong social bonds and social groups,” he mentioned.

But the bonds between sharks are seemingly completely different from these between people. Sharks, Dr. Papastamatiou mentioned, might spend time with one another with a purpose to mate, extra simply discover meals or fend off predators. (Killer whales, amongst others, are identified to prey on sharks.)

In a 2020 study within the Pacific Ocean, Dr. Papastamatiou and different researchers discovered {that a} completely different shark species, referred to as the gray reef shark, tended to stay with the identical social group for so long as 4 years. He mentioned he had additionally noticed white sharks “hanging out” with one another for hours in particular websites the place the animals have a tendency to assemble.

Simon and Jekyll may add to that image, he mentioned, demonstrating that white sharks might “actually travel to and from these sites together.” They might even have extra associates who aren’t but tagged, he added.

Ocearch researchers have tagged 92 white sharks since 2012 to review the creatures’ migration and mating patterns, in accordance with Dr. Hueter. So far, solely Simon and Jekyll have moved collectively in such proximity.

Still, Dr. Hueter believes the 2 sharks are probably groundbreaking and will draw extra consideration to the reason for shark conservation.

“In a way, it’s humanizing,” he mentioned of the invention, a reminder that “they have siblings. They have a mother. They have a father.”

“They’re just trying to make a living in the ocean,” he mentioned. “And we need them for the balance of life in the sea.”