On August 14th, Jimmy Buffett boarded an Ocearch.org research vessel off the coast of Montauk, NY where he watched the efforts to tag and track great white sharks. The researchers let Jimmy name one of the tagged sharks, which he dubbed “JD” after his father James Delaney.

JD was spotted this week off the Jersey shore, about 178 miles from where it was tagged.

JD, a tagged 75-pound juvenile male white shark that was named by singer Jimmy Buffett — who was on the vessel when the shark was tagged — was only yards from the Barnegat Light beaches Wednesday morning, according to the shark’s satellite tag.

The 5-foot 4-inch long shark was tagged by OCEARCH researchers on Aug. 14 after it was captured off the coast of Montauk, N.Y. during the group’s monthlong Empire State and Garden State expedition to search for great white sharks.

The shark traveled 178 miles from its capture site to Barnegat Light since being tagged.

Chris Fischer, OCEARCH’s founder and expedition leader, explained why the “Margaritaville” singer was on board the vessel at the time JD was tagged.

“Jimmy has been a real big supporter of OCEARCH,” said Fischer. “He named the shark after his dad, James Delaney.”

OCEARCH is researching the life-cycle of white sharks, an apex ocean predator. The sharks are known scientifically as Carcharodon carcharias and can grow up to 21 feet in length and weigh over 4,000 pounds.

Fischer estimates JD, which can be seen being tagged in the video above, is one year old and is feeding on small prey fish such as mackerel, menhaden and squid.

A second juvenile male white shark named Bruin also “pinged” off the coast of New Jersey Wednesday, but about 100 miles east of the coastline near the continental shelf.

A ping is when the shark’s dorsal fin, where the tag is placed, appears above the surface for more than 90 seconds, which enables the tag to be picked up by satellite.

Read more at app.com

Meet JD – a baby great white that was tagged and released on the Ocearch expedition. JB named him after his father…. A son of a sailor. You'll be able to follow JD at www.ocearch.org

A post shared by Jimmy Buffett (@jimmybuffett) on Aug 14, 2017 at 9:52am PDT

Visiting the Ocearch expedition off Montauk. Shark conservation is critical to ocean health. Ocearch doing important work. #ocearch #dontfearthefin

A post shared by Jimmy Buffett (@jimmybuffett) on Aug 14, 2017 at 6:11am PDT

It’s been seventy trips around the sun for Jimmy Buffett!

Born December 25th, 1946 to James Delaney Buffett and Mary Loraine, Jimmy shares his birthday with Humphrey Bogart, Sir Isaac Newton, Barbara Mandrell, Sissy Spacek, Annie Lennox, Justin Trudeau, Karl Rove, and Jesus of Nazareth.

Happy birthday Jimmy and Merry Christmas to all of you!

We’ll post a 2016 Buffett Year in Review soon!

Jimmy Buffett was in Las Vegas on Monday for the US premiere of the new “Jason Bourne” film. Buffett’s good friend Frank Marshall is a producer on the latest installment of the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, which opens July 29th.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Jimmy Buffett reveals that he’s planning to take some time off:

“I’m not working as much as I used to work. I turn 70 this year, and I’m going to take some time off and enjoy myself. I have some other projects in mind, though. I’ll be doing things and bringing a camera along to take fans places that aren’t so easy for them to get to,” he said.

The rest of the article is a good read and includes a wrap of the Houston Show on Saturday night, how he came up with the “I Don’t Know” name for the tour, and how he got Jeff Bridges to voice a talking cartoon coconut:

“We always have a meeting when a tour ends to start planning the next one. ‘OK, now what are we going to do?’ We were joking around, and everybody kept saying, ‘I don’t know.’ It got humorous and we just followed that trail,” he said.

Buffett is letting fans help create the concert set list this year. They can go online and vote for songs they want him to play. The catch: Fans can only request songs that Buffett hasn’t performed live in the past 10 years.

“I’m liking what they’re picking,” Buffett said. “They’re voting for some interesting things. We did ‘Barefoot Children in the Rain’ in Atlanta. I’m still tweaking how to get more of those songs in the show.”

For Houston, Buffett played “In the Shelter,” a song originally recorded in 1971. It’s as far back as Buffett goes.

OK, that’s one song. There are nine songs – the hits like “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” “Volcano” and “Fins” – that he has to play or fans would revolt.

That leaves 654 more songs on his jukebox according to buffettnews.com, the mind-boggling compendium of Buffett facts and figures.

How does he pick and choose?

“I can’t tell you that … that’s part of the mystery,” he said.

“Without rehearsing, we can do 105 songs. That gives me a lot of room to move around and call audibles. I still read crowds to see what would work that night.”

Another twist for this year’s tour: a talking cartoon coconut that kibitzes with Buffett throughout the concert. The voice behind the coconut: Jeff Bridges. How’d that happen?

“I asked him, that’s how,” Buffett said. “We’re old friends. The coconut needed a voice. So I asked Jeff and he said yes. Warren Buffett once told me, ‘Ask for what you want, but be prepared for somebody to say no.’ Well, Jeff didn’t say no.”

Soon you’ll be able to waste away on Buffett Beach in Pascagoula, Mississippi:

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant wasn’t wasting away any time signing a bill to honor Jimmy Buffett.

The beach just blocks from the musician’s childhood home in Pascagoula will now carry his name. City leaders said they want the world to know they are proud that the famous singer-songwriter was born in Pascagoula. They say putting Buffett’s name on the beach would boost the city’s tourism market.

Officials told us previously they hope to hold the dedication ceremony for Buffett Beach on May 6, 2017. The city already dedicated a bridge to the singer in September 2015.