Katharine, a great while shark, may never measure up to the great white shark in “Jaws.” But Katharine did something that fictional shark never did — visit the Pamlico Sound at least once.

Katharine’s Jan. 10 “ping” was shared via Facebook by Vail Stewart Rumley, news editor for the Washington Daily News. Reactions from area Facebook patrons to Katharine’s Jan. 10 ping ranged from “Cool” to “Really??” to “Exciting!”

Katherine “pinged” in the Pamlico Sound at 10:48 a.m. Jan. 10, according to OCEARCH, a nonprofit organization that tracks and researches great white sharks and other aquatic top-of-the-food-chain predators. The next ping was recorded at the Outer Banks near Oregon Inlet at 1:41 p.m. the same day.

A ping is recorded when a tagged shark’s dorsal fin breaks the water’s surface and a transponder transmits a signal to a satellite overhead, which sends back an estimated geo-location to OCEARCH. Pings show Katharine traveling into the Gulf of Mexico, off the panhandle of Florida near Panama City, and along the East Coast, but no farther north than the Cape Cod area.

Katharine’s most recent ping was at 7:14 a.m. Tuesday off the coast of southern South Carolina.

As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the shark had traveled 31.599 miles in the previous 24 hours and 129.129 miles in the previous 72 hours. Since being tagged, Katharine has traveled 10,341.574 miles.

Katharine, classified as an immature shark, was tagged off Cape Cod on Aug. 20, 2013. Katharine was 14 feet, 2 inches long and weighed 2,300 pounds when tagged, according to OCEARCH.

The OCEARCH website notes that the shark was named by Caterpillar Products fans in honor of Katharine Lee Bates, a Cape Cod native and songwriter best know for her song “America the Beautiful.”

“OCEARCH enables leading researchers and institutions to generate previously unattainable data on the movement, biology and health of sharks to protect their future while enhancing public safety and education,” reads the OCEARCH website. OCEARCH operates a global shark-tracking network.

To track Katharine, visit the OCEARCH website at www.ocearch.org and make use of the “Global Shark Tracker” program, which allows customized searches based on varying criteria.