Shark, named by Jaws author's wife, pings off Delmarva

A shark being tracked by OCEARCH spent Mother's Day swimming toward the coast of Delmarva.

Immature mako shark Cate Ells last emitted a signal at 11:24 p.m. May 10. She weighed 68 pounds and was 6-foot-6-inches long when she was caught and tagged with a satellite tracker in July of 2014.

She pinged more than 10 miles off the coast Sunday, and had just swam from farther offshore.

While this shark doesn't have the stature of Mary Lee, the 4,000-pound great white who visited Delmarva waters last week, Cate Ells does have a famous namesake. According to OCEARCH she was tagged during a catch-and-release shark tournament in New York, where she was caught by Wendy Benchley, the wife of Peter Benchley, the now-deceased author of Jaws.

Benchley is well known for her efforts to conserve sharks, serving as President of the Board of Directers of SharkSavers, according to the group's website. SharkSavers has a mission to save sharks and manta rays though awareness, education and action.

OCEARCH shares a similar ethos, with a goal of educating, inspiring and enabling through the tracking and research of great white sharks and other large apex predators, such as the mako shark, across the globe.

Cate Ells is named after Benchley's two granddaughters, Catharine and Eloise, according to the OCEARCH site.

Great white Mary Lee still off Delmarva, 20 miles out

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shortfin makos like Cate Ells grow slowly up to 12-feet in length, and live for about 11.5 years.

They're also one of the most popular sharks to eat, and can be found on many menus along the coast. According to NOAA, a 2012 assessment found they did not appear to be overfished.

Here are a few facts about Cate Ells, according to OCEARCH's website:

•She is a mako shark.

•She was tagged July 13, 2014, in Montauk, New York.

•She was 6 foot 6 inches when tagged.

•She weighed 68 pounds when tagged.

•Since being tagged she has traveled 13,579 miles.

•In the past 24 hours she has traveled 254 miles, and in the past 72 hours she has traveled 386 miles.

•To track Cate Ells go to her profile at www.ocearch.org/profile/cate_ells.