OCEARCH Shark Tracker
Reviews and Complaints

The scroll bars showing you 'more' information on each shark don't scroll? Overall, this would be a really cool app, it just needs to function properly. I'm using it on my iPad right now. However, this morning I wasn't able to get it to work on my iPhone at all either.

Also, there's a feature you can click on in the home screen that says something like 'bring it to life' but when I clicked on it, all it shows on the screen is "Aurisma"? Now I can't even get back to the the shark tracking screen. Might end up uninstalling if it's not fixed. :(

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!

When i tried to zoom into a shark you can get some data but then when you try to zoom out or go to another shark you can't. Sometimes it does allow you to zoom out but it doesn't take you back to the shark that you were looking at, it zooms all the way out which isn't what I want. You have to restart the app when you're stuck on a shark. Dates are all incorrect . There is no history on the where have I been tag. Maybe you should put an animation that shows the progress over time and where the shark goes as an animation for each shark. The app also has a very clunky and amateurish feel to it.

Finally if I'm a fisherman aren't you concerned that people use this app to track and capture the fish?

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!

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.

My Children, grandchildren and I have enjoyed tracking sharks, turtles & sea lions all summer. We’ve loved learning about your work and all you are doing for our oceans.. However it’s disappointing when we want to see who’s popped up & where but can’t and are subject to a host of problems. We use a simple iPad. Your App has been a great learning tool for the little ones. They’ve picked out their favorite animals but are very disappointed when they can’t “check on them”! I installed google earth as advised to help with this problem.. it’s a best a hit or miss. I’d be glad to pay a small fee for a working app because our family have found it to be so interesting. Again thanks for all you are doing for our oceans creatures. Looking forward to fixes ;)

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.

Let's face it,who isn't fascinated with sharks?We've watched the movies that depict these sharks as savaged killers.Our interests in this beautiful creature are profound and although we wouldn't want to swim with one we'd definitely want to track them.This app was an innovative idea,brilliant even but in order to function correctly it needs satellite support.That isn't a problem by no means but what this app lacks is speed.It's like if you tap on a ping of a shark in the bay of Africa's coast you'll find that it takes longer than it should to relate information .This app is an awesome one but it needs more finesse to make it what it should be.It was cool and the info was great but I would take my review for what it is,my opinion.Give it a try for yourself.

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 is a really freaking great idea for an app but it's done all wrong. Why would I want to know where random sharks are in the ocean. I want to get to know the sharks. I want to know where they have been, I want to know their history, who tagged them, what type of shark they are, how big they are. All this info or at least as much info as is know about these sharks, which must be a decent amount if they were tagged needs to be available when you click on the shark. Also I am trying to see who the two shark near Naples Florida right now are, and I can't because you can tap a shark on a map and be told where who they are. In order to figure out who those sharks are I would have to click on EVERY SINGLE SHARK one shark at a time just just to figure out who they are. This is a simple and obvious feature that anybody would know is necessary on an app like this. PLEASE FIX IT NOW. OMG

Up until recently the shark tracker app has been my favorite app to use on a day-to-day basis. However with a recent update removing the comment section I am slowly losing the will to live. Life has become a bleak meaningless void. How will Ms. Costa and Ferg ever know just how fine they look. “You don’t know you’re beautiful” Sang the famous vocalist Harry Styles. Harry is also a big fan of you’re app, but it’s a shame he doesn’t use it anymore since you removed the goddamn comment section. Either bring it back or we riot. Also you should invest into new photographers, my eyes are bleeding just looking at Miss Costa. She has traveled 25k miles just to look like a homeless bull shark. Nehsi is also not appealing to the eye.

Alright obviously this is satire and I got a good laugh out of writing it, but please for the love of God, I beg for the comments to be activated again.

Thanks
Sam

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.

Can you please update your APP to be as informative as your web page?

My students are greatly interested in keeping up with your studies of the ocean's top predator. Using the APP is easier for us to use but needs a big update.

There are many mistakes in the APP. For instance, Marylee and Katherine among a few, were not both tagged Jan 1, 1715. "The Ocearch Vessel "did not surface long enough to get an accurate position." would always be incorrect.

Can you add in the APP a way to search by type of shark and a create a favorites list with their data? Can this be printable?

In the APP can the tracks of sharks be easier to read? Such as position of capture, where they spent their time by season, any correlation to be in certain places?

Can there be regular updates or yearly summaries of what you've learned about each shark?

Do you have enough data to predict future movements?

Did tropical storm Anna cause several Great Whites to swim away from the Ga to NC areas or were they following prey that were fleeing the storm?

Update 1/8 The latest update restores all previous functionality. Still testing and have found a way to lock it up when going from tracking one shark to 'All Sharks' but over all it works as before. Thanks.

The Ocearch shark tracking app on my iPad mini is currently broken. The web version still works as before as does the one on my iPhone 4s.
On the iPad app you see part of a selection for Why help sharks, FAQs, Bring to Life and Terms of Service. Selecting any of them crashes the app. At the bottom you see Home, Tracker, Sharks, Settings and Media. Selecting Sharks, Settings and Media return a blank white screen. Tracker brings up the map but only on the left 2/3 of the screen. The box for selecting sharks is gone. Selecting any shark on the Tracker crashes the app. The app also prompts to tap the header bar for mor options. Tapping the header bar does nothing on the iPad but works on the iPhone. I hope this gets fixed.

Update 11/1
The Ocearch app disappeared from the App Store and then reappeared today. Sadly, it's still broken and all of the previous problems are still there. I deleted and reinstalled the app to no effect. Ocearch says they're working on a correction and will announced it when it's ready. The old version on my iPhone 4s still works as does the web version (not going to update the iPhone version).

I have never in my life left a review on ANYTHING, but this was too important to me. I love this app. I love these sharks. I love getting excited about the sharks. And I loved getting to see so many others also get excited over the sharks. The day I updated the app to find the update removed the comments section was an incredibly upsetting day. Sure, I could still check on my beloved sharks, but I could no longer share my enthusiasm for them with others who were also enthusiastic about them. It became so lonely on the app. In a time where I have lost contact with many people, it was incredibly difficult to also lose the interaction with fellow shark enthused strangers. I come back to the App Store every now and then to check if there is an update, hoping it will bring the comments back. I get so excited every time I see “update” instead of “open”, only to be disappointed to find the app still has no comments section. I love a lot of the other changes that have been made, such as having the ability to favorite sharks (because, let’s be honest, we all have our favorites; mine are Fast Ball, Slinger, and Perla), but it just isn’t the same without the comments. In all honesty, the comments were one of the biggest motivators on the app to learn more about the sharks. It is much harder to get enthused in solitude. I love this app, and I thank you for making it, but I must implore you to consider bringing the comments section back, especially during a time when we all feel so lonely and overwhelmed by chaos.

I got this app for my trip to South Africa (which happens to be the great white shark capital of the world) and I really love it! It allows you to see where sharks, turtles, and fur seals have been around the world. This app is unique because it offers a map with a bunch of pins showing where each animal was last located. When you tap on one of the pins, a banner will appear with the name of the shark, as well as the date it was last tagged. If you want to know more information, all you have to do is tap the info button. The researchers provide a bunch of awesome images and videos, as well as a “where have I been?” feature that opens to a new map showing that particular shark’s route. One suggestion I have is to make different maps for each animal or at least giving the pins a different color depending on the animal. Right now they are all blue and you have to click through each one to figure out what type of animal it is.

Another cool feature they recently added was the shark tab - which lists sharks by their most recent ping. If you have a favorite shark, you can also search for it in a search bar. You definitely grow attached to certain sharks (and their stories!) so I wish there was a folder to put your “favorite” sharks in so that you easily keep up to date with them without having to search for their name each time.

Because this app is owned by a research company, there is also a lot of educational content (which is great for kids). This is found on both the home page and media page where they provide FAQs, information about OSEARCH itself, and why you should help sharks. You can also donate or shop on their sites which help support their cause. There are certainly server connection errors and it takes a long time for some content to load, but other than that I think this app is definitely worth it. I would even pay for this app if they fixed the bugs and updated the shark stats more frequently. An awesome app for shark lovers of all ages!

I would love to be able to fully use this app. I find it interesting to track sharks, however, I'm having problems with the app. The box that has the name of the sharks that pinged doesn't work. I've tried on my iPad and iPhone both and it will still not work. I'm not able to read any information about the sharks. I've opened the app in different browsers and I've also deleted and reinstalled the app but still nothing works. I wish I could use this app.

As many others have said, the potential for this application to provide both entertainment and information are significant. However, the app itself is frequently down, as it is today with server connection issues, and overall could use some streamlining and better user interface. Strongly agree with several of the comments below, including navigational aspects as well as more robust filtering options.

Please, at the very least, maintain a functioning app.

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

I truly enjoyed this app for the first couple years I had it. Now it is pretty useless You no longer can tap the " red dot" and see the pics of that shark , what it is and so forth. How can anyone appreciate MaryLee, Katherine or Lydia if they can't see what they are. I have even purchased merchandise off this site... I used to be a regular. Now I might look once every 2-3 weeks. Come on guys. Seems like the more you tag the less we know!
--- Hopeful in NC

Sadly I had to rate it at a 1 star. I was really excited to see this app to have on my phone. Unfortunately every time I open it it says it cannot connect therefore none of the pings update. I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it and it still does the same thing. Is this just a glitch in the app that needs to be fixed with an update? I noticed that it had been a while since it was updated, I think it said a year. Is the app even still being monitored by developers to work correctly?

The concept is great, but it was not executed well. There is so much potential here but it fell short of my already low expectations. The amount of info is intriguing; however, the dates are so false that I question all the other information on this app (tag dates set in 1616 and 1716). Absolute bogus. Its most likely all falsified info just used to get the app out there. And most unfortunately this is the only app of its kind out there right now. One thing they were successful at is getting their free advertisement.

I had this app a while back and it worked great on my iPad Air 2. I deleted it for some time and recently downloaded it again. What happened!? It's absolutely terrible now. When launched it comes up with two windows that are in the way of the map. When and if you move the windows and touch a shark to get its info the info comes up in one of the Windows but you can't read it because you can't scroll through the information. Yuck yuck yuck. I want to delete it but I'll keep it around for a little while to see if a fix comes out. Please hurry.

how can we say hi to scotty 2 now :(

So the last Ping is over 2 years ago. Useless.

It was a perfect app until you took them away!

I tried to sign up with email. It doesn’t work with iPhone 6

It won’t send the email to me! Tried multiple times and won’t work!

App is a great idea. But SeaWorld is an atrocity and should not be supported.

Comments were the best part of this app I will probably delete now :/ please bring them back!

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 love this app and i love tracking my favorite sharks (perla, scotty 2) but the recent update seems to have removed the ability to comment on sharks, which was honestly a huge part of why i used the app. i really enjoyed checking in and seeing the cute comments people would leave for their favorite sharks and leaving my own as well, and removing that feature and the community aspect has made me much less likely to use the app overall.