I never leave reviews. But this app really helped me out during a dark time in my life this year. I checked on these sharks everyday but I knew a big contributor to that was from the comment section. The internet is powerful and this app / research organization was able to bring a community of strangers -young and old -together to a place where we could all share the same thoughts and enthusiasm for these beautiful creatures. It was so fun to read all the various comments people would leave. For example one comment would read something like “Mary is a runner, she a track staaaaar” to the next comment saying “wow, Mary is bigger than most of the sharks in her species ( insert smart quote about shark here)”. VARIETY WE LOVE IT. I’m not sure if this comment will change your mind at all. But I have never been so upset over an app update before. I really hope my first review of an app will pay off ! Thanks.
I got this app a while back and I had forgotten about it but I came back to it the other day and I have some things I want to mention. I used to love checking on certain sharks and seing the comments people left so when I checked the app again and saw the comment section gone I was really surprised. As far as I can tell, the comment section was a well loved feature so I don’t understand why you would remove it and would love to have it back and I am sure other people would too. Another thing I noticed is the fact that though you can search for many different types of sea creatures, The only ones you can actually see are several sharks and one single turtle. I understand that you cannot track ever animal in the ocean and that with covid-19 it is probably much harder to track animals but I would love to see at least a bit more variety. Other than these this is quite a good app and its quite enjoyable so I would love to see my recommendations added to the app.
This app pretty good, pretty good. Was it amazing? Not really. I understand that you really cannot track every shark in the ocean. But I downloaded this app as a worried individual, looking for a way to feel aware of the sharks in my area before I hit the sand. And you know what, I saw the sharks on the map... but they were from like 2017. Now, I did see that you are able to see “pinged” sharks. Those sharks were updated only a phew days ago. That was helpful. And as I started to become less worried, then I looked at the entire map. And what did I see... NO SHARKS IN HAWAII. Concerning? Yes. Again I know that you can’t track every shark in the ocean, but like... common. I’m no marine biologist, but I know that sharks ARE in Hawaii.👁👄👁
This app allows you to see all the various animals that are tagged and you're able to follow their path throughout the seasons based on "pings"- basically every time the animal surfaces. You can also choose certain animals as favorites. I choose my favorites based on the ones who tend to visit the area where I live every season. But what would make this app more exciting (and useful) is to be able to set up alerts for when your animal either pings or better, pings within a certain radius of your area. As the app is set up now, you cannot receive notifications or alerts so you will miss when the animal is close- unless you go onto the app and check every day. I realize this is a science app that is kindly being shared with us nonscientists, but I'm sure one of the undergrads could easily take this on as a simple project?
Firstly, i love this app. it’s so cool to be able to see where these sharks are going and have been. but i do have a few critiques that could definitely improve it: - i think we should have an option to receive a notification when one of our favorited animals pings. i don’t usually check the app several times a day and there’s some pings i’ve completely missed. so getting a notification would definitely keep me more active on the app and overall more excited to know who’s pinging and when! - we need a variety of animals! i’ve noticed that there’s a lot of different animal categories, but the only animals we can currently track are sharks and 1 turtle. it seems like there just hasn’t been any new animals tagged recently. being able to track more turtles, dolphins, seals, etc would be so exciting.
This app is so cool, I love all the sharks names and the comments people leave on their profiles. I’ve been putting so many people onto it and go on it all the time. I do with the app had a favoriting system so I could have a list of all my favorite sharks and maybe even get alerts when they ping. It would be nice if people could donate money to name some of the sharks or fund an expedition. I also really like how there are other animals like swordfish and turtles but I wish they were more recent. I think opening the app up to other aquatic animals and research groups could be a good way to adapt the app further, whales in particular would be cool. All in all, I love the app and am so glad I found it!
I got this app because I love sharks. I live 3 hours from the Gulf of Mexico.(hello Crystal and Rose!!) I knew we had sharks, bull sharks and mako but I had no idea we had great whites!! My dad retired last year from working off shore almost 50 yrs. He’s told me stories about what he’s seen out there. I showed him the app because I got my love for the ocean from him. He was so excited and had me download it for him. He checks the app twice daily and loves it. He has his favorites. I got the backpack for work and the zipper hoodie and love them both and I got my dad one of the Yeti cups for Father’s Day off the Ocearch website. Thank you so much for what you do and can’t wait to see more sharks!
I have always loved sharks and appreciate their importance.
I love this app because it has educational features that help my daughter and I learn about our favorite ocean creatures. When my financial situation is better I will definitely donate to Ocean Research! We the people need to fight for the life of the ocean because if we selfishly keep abusing it we will loose everything that we need to survive. God bless the men and women who dedicate they’re lives and time to help preserve theses beautiful animals!
Really cool idea if only more people would participate!
The premise, of being able to see any shark or marine animal that has a tag on it, where it’s been and what it is doing is so unique and cool and something anyone would be interested in. The only reason I demoted it a star was because there are so few animals in the system right now that it looks pretty much the same day to day. It would be awesome to see more scientists and researchers engage with this app. I live in Southern California and to be able to look at this app and go, “oh Jamba the shark and Olio the sea turtle are out today. :)” would be really cool.
I like the idea and it’s really cool, but the nearest sharks to me were last pinged in 2016 and 2018. It’s now 2020. I thought this would be more of a thing to use before I went to the beach not just to see that there have been sharks in my area. Maybe I misunderstood. Also, it would be nice if you could select an animal and have a small amount of information pop up without losing the map view. Fun, but not as practical as I’d hoped for. EDIT: I made a mistake, the blinking dots are the recently pinged, so it does have some up-to-date info. The other suggestion still applies in my opinion.
What a cool app that allows worldwide animal lovers as a community to track and comment to support these amazing animals. Oh wait- the comment feature has vanished without any note on app as to why? I don’t use shark tracker as much at all now, seeing all the great comments are no longer available? My kid and I loved tracking and reading and sending cheers to our fav sharks. In a recent update, the popular interactive side was taken away. From what I read in a similar review, comments removed from the app due to the very few not deemed appropriate— why not offer to have a review filter then users post appears shortly after? Bring comments back!!
Wow! This app is amazing, if my friend never showed me this I would have nothing to do on my iPad! This gave me real time places of where sharks and other animals would be. Recommend instantly! If you see this you HAVE TO download it! It gives you cool videos and all the info about these sharks and other cool interesting sea creatures that roam around in the sea! Love this app and I’m learning so much interesting facts 🩷💜💙
This app is great for marine animal lovers. You get to see so many animals like sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, and seals/sea lions! All the animals have names. Just one thing I would change about the app. I wish there was a way to favorite specific animals so that you can easily check back in on them later. Over all I think it’s a great app for ocean lovers. Highly recommend if you are into that kind of stuff.
I think it is a great app. I enjoy watching where the shark has gone, one thing I like doing is seeing how close they get to shore it sends shivers of excitement and fear through me! What I think would improve the app is if I tells you how far it is from shore or a specific location on the map. I give a round of applause to the creators of the shark tracker and the oceanographers who tagged the sharks and other sea animals!
I love this app but there could be a few things done to improve
This app is great but one of the things I feel that would benefit this app and the users would be a favorite option for the animals. So if you favorite the animal there could be an extra tab where all your favorites go so you can track them individually. I would really like this feature since it would save me and a lot of other users time finding the animals we like to track.
I have been drawn to sharks since the movie,”Jaws” came out, I guess instead of fear I found curiosity in these beautiful creatures. This app allows me to take in information and believe it or not,… the personalities each project in the photos taken. I would love to know if the crew ever retags after the shark ping is lost, hoping Mary Lee will be back on a current list. Wishing all the best!
This app is literally so amazing. I love being able to learn more about my favorite sharks and also about other new sharks that pop up. They also have turtles and this is just such an amazing app to have. Weather you are a animal nerd like me or just want to find something different and fun I HIGHLY suggest getting this app. If I could give more stars I absolutely would.
like many others I love checking my shark tracker app, it’s super cool and interesting to see their movement! I miss the comments a lot though. I love sharks & their one of the things I hyper fixated on learning about, and it was awesome to see other people comment on the shark pages so I knew other people liked looking at this kind of things too :) I miss the comments, please bring them back if you can
I absolutely love this app. It’s great and I completely understand on why some pings are all the way back in 2017. Honestly there is no complaints about this app. The only thing I would like to add is that when there is a new ping I can get a notification. Other than that I love this because it brings out my shark lovingness.
Cool app with interesting details about individual sharks and their paths. I’m disappointed that the comment section has been removed though. It was always fun and entertaining to check that feature. I referred several friends to the app because of the comment section. It was just a fun little bonus area that should be brought back.
It’s real research on living beings in the ocean. To be able to see where Greats track for a year to me is the bees knees. Add on the turtles and porpoises there’s always something pinging to see. A great educational tool and a great cause to support. Maybe if more people knew about this they would care a little more saving the sea life…
A friend of mine a year ago turned me on to this. I actually don’t check it often. But. This is great. I do check certain sharks. I don’t check it because I get too busy and forget. Sorry. My bad. But again I think this a great thing. Let me get my tax check. I’ll be donating. I love this program.
Overall this app is amazing! But there are some things that I think would be good to add, 1: notifications for new pings/Z pings on your favorite animals. 2: notifications for new animals being released in the wild. 3: more exact distance measurement from an aminal like 59 miles etc. thanks for reading!
This is a really interesting app. You are given information about individual sharks and shown where they last pinged. I keep track of them and am motivated to help these most awesome creatures. I really suggest to give your age appropriate access to this app also.
This app is incredible. It’s not Real-time, though, for many of the sharks shown. There are sharks that haven’t pinged for over 5 years. App could be more Real-Time if old-ping sharks could be hidden from the map without removing the shark’s data? Sharks travel long distances within days so they could be anywhere. Thank you to the app developers for sharing all this info. Incredibly interesting👍🏼
If you are interested in animals, this is a really cool app! The only thing I wish is that it would update or sort by activity or something so the animals that haven’t pinged in a few years would clear out of the feed. I don’t want to lose their history, but would like the more current activity to be easier to see.
I was absolutely heartbroken to learn the comment section was removed. It was one of the few good things on the Internet these days and it brought us all together. Please please restore it. My heart can’t take missing out on such a positive part of my day. Thank you.
the comments were literally the only reason i downloaded the app originally it was so much fun and made the whole thing a social experience as well as an educational and environmental one. now the app is dry and bland and it considering uninstalling. i understand wanting to make it child friendly since it is clearly supposed to be educational, but why not put an age limit on the comments? you can only view them if you are over 13 or something? or just add a filter like many others suggested? it’s extremely disappointing seeing them and all of the life in the app go away. i’ll still be there to support buc-ee and fast ball, but i don’t know how much longer i’ll stick around, and i definitely won’t be using the app nearly as much :( big disappointment.
WeSo fortunate to have the technology to do what we can do in tracking the sharks. They are a vital part of our ecosystem. Educating people about their movement’s helps us be a part of their lives in a good sort of way we’re not invading their privacy or changing their behavior but understanding them is important for all
I have been tracking Katherine a massive great white shark, since she was tagged about 7 years ago. Exciting to see she is still out there with last ping in May 2020. I sit here and Katherine swims on and on. Only on Ocearch. The app is regularly up-dated and runs quickly. Find a favorite and stay in touch. Ocearch connect me to the adventure of a majestic creature.
Growing up on the eastern coast and a surfer, we encountered sharks. The fact that Great Whites are in our waters is scary but it is the natural part of living near the ocean. At one point while our daughter and son was being pulled on an inner tube, we saw a shark surface that was long as our boat. Needless to say we gently pulled our kids to the boat. And that was the end of inner tube riding in the waters near FRIPP ISLAND AND Beaufort SC.
This app is one of my favorite apps of all time! I love sea life and the concept is great. However the comments brought so much more to the app. They were funny and kind of like a community. I never saw any inappropriate ones. Without them the app has lost its spirit and sadly I rarely use it much anymore. I’ll never delete but you should REALLY find a way to bring comments back with a filter. Not the same
Hello, I had a timely question for your organization and had emailed it in to you. Within 24 hours, I not only got a quick response, but a detailed response in answer to my question. Thank you PAIGE FINNEY! Much appreciated!
I enjoy this app. Tracking seeing where the sharks were caught and tagged and all their travels. I have noticed that the location of the sharks remain the same for a long period of time and I am wondering the reason, maybe it’s because they remain in the same area? You all are doing a great job! Keep it up.
I am a shark fanatic and this has been a really great app! It’s fun to see where the different sharks go and hang out. I enjoy waking up and checking on the different sharks. Of course, this will not show you EVERY shark in the ocean, as it is impossible to tag every single shark, but it is very exciting to see the sharks THATS re tagged and learn of their habits. I really love this app!’
I have been seeing epic sharks and all different kinds! From baby’s to almost adults and then adults I am on this app 24/7 it’s my fave app ever!!! I love all the sharks I see they are amazing and all of them are so cute there are even alligators, turtles, and seals!!!I love this app never change I really want to meet the creators it’s so cool!!!
I will never plan a vacation or go to a beach without first checking this app. I’m amazed at the number of great whites along the North and South Carolina coastlines and am enjoying following Unama’kai in the, whose been between Pensacola and Tampa in the Gukg if Mexico, as she had lingered there several weeks now. She is about a 15 foot long, over 2,000 pound great white !
I’m finally deleting this app. After over half a year of the comments disappearing and being unavailable, I am no longer interested. Peoples comments made this app 2x as enjoyable as the default version of it. I like tracking the sharks, sure, but there are other apps and websites where I can do that. What was special about this one was the comments. And that is obviously gone forever. I’m sad because at one point this was my favorite app. Goodbye and good luck
Nice app, it’s fun to look around at the sharks but the “real time” tracking isn’t really “real time”. I understand the sharks have to stick their fin above surface to send a signal, this the signals don’t come very often. It would be very useful to be able to sort by ping date in the tracker map page. Thereby allowing the user to eliminate pings that are years old.
I love getting to see where sharks have been, what their stats and all that good stuff, I just don’t really like the pictures :/ the sharks are usually dead and they aren’t probably the actual sharks. They seem like stock images. I could be wrong though, I recommend this app to everyone!!!
This is the most incredible app I’ve ever seen. I know for many years scientists have tracked sharks and many other animals migration patterns, but now the general public has access to this information at their fingertips.
I loved this app when Mary Lee was around. Simple and more user friendly than the current app. The upgrades are counter intuitive. The ability to move easily between sharks is tedious. The map itself is not worth the frustration. If you going to build on an app make it worth the time. I have since uploaded and deleted this app a number of times in hope it will better. I am nearly at the point of not trying.
I’ve had this app for about 6 or 7 years. I love it! I use it a lot but mostly during the summer. I live in Massachusetts so I know there are so many great whites at the Cape. I just love tracking the sharks. I first heard of this app on Discovery’s Shark Week. I hope everyone checks it out
This app is very cool. I like how it tells us all of the Shark’s info not just the location. It lets you see tiger sharks and great whites. It also gives you info of how they tag the sharks too. This app is very great and would recommend it to everyone
So yeah I guess this app is good. But their is something sus in this app. Their are no sharks in Hawaii? Now I’m no expert but I know their is sharks in Hawaii! Sus! Next thing! You telling me there is no Sharks in the sandeigo beaches? Nothing? Can you be accurate? I just downloaded this app tonight and that already happened. Don’t download this if this isn’t going to help me or you at all. Please respond! 🏖️☀️🌊🌴 🦈🦈🦈🦈🦈
This is the most amazing app ! It gives real-time updates . If you, (like me) love the ocean and all sea life you have to get this ! Reading the profiles of each amazing animal tagged and released and watching the tracked location is phenomenal. Thank You So Much for creating this and the work and research you accomplish Ocearch ❤️
If you’re like me and you love sharks this is your app. You can go anywhere in the world and track sharks. These sharks have tagged and photographed. It’s quite an amazing app. There are no in-app purchases so it is completely free unless you want to make a donation.
I think that this app is a good app and it’s very interesting but the problem with it is that you can’t put your phone on a location. Let’s say that I’m going to Miami later this summer and I want to use it to see if there are any sharks in that area, the app won’t let me do that.
I love this app but it shows any tag in the water and because of that you’ll see animals that are most likely dead but it still shows them in the water. So in simpler terms, half of the animals are dead, I still recommend it.
This app is super fun, informative, and helps keep my mind at ease. When I first downloaded it, I loved looking at the comments under each shark because they were always so funny and made the app distinctly enjoyable. Checked the app again and saw that they removed the comment section for no apparent reason. Sadly I have no incentive to use this app anymore so I’m just going to delete it. RIP Shark Tracker comments🙏🏻
The new OCEARCH Shark Tracker lets you explore the migrations of sharks and other marine animals that have been tagged with state of the art satellite tracking technology. OCEARCH is on a mission to ensure abundant oceans for future generations and you’re invited to learn alongside our science team through our OCEARCH Shark Tracker! Sharks are the balance keepers of the ocean and the path to healthy, abundant oceans goes through them. It is critical that we understand the complete life history of these apex predators so that responsible management policies can be enacted to protect them. OCEARCH facilitates unprecedented research by supporting leading researchers and institutions seeking to attain groundbreaking data on the biology and health of sharks, in conjunction with basic research on shark life history and migration. Data gathered from each animal on the Tracker is being used by scientists and institutions around the world to help protect each species and our oceans as a whole - and now you can track your favorite sharks.
