Capt. Brett McBride helps scientists collect blood, tissue samples and attach tracking devices on a 15-foot great white shark aboard the research vessel OCEARCH in 2012. The real-time satellite tag tracks the shark each time its dorsal fin breaks the surface.

BOSTON — They’re gonna need a bigger Twitter.

An organization studying great white sharks is enjoying some welcome attention after one of the creatures they’ve been monitoring started gaining a loyal social media following. @MaryLeeShark is the fake Twitter handle for a very real, nearly 3,500-pound great white whose movements can be tracked online and in real time.

She’s drawn over 44,000 followers with her playful updates and witty replies as the real life shark cruises up and down the East Coast.

“Oh heyyyyy.... you’re right by my house, come by for a nightcap?” invited one recent Twitter commenter as she popped up off the coast of Long Island, N.Y.

“I would settle for an ice bag to put on my aching Twitter fin. -:()” Mary Lee replied.

“What do you do during Shark Week?” another recent commenter asked. “Swim. Eat. Tweet. Etc. Exhausting. -;(),” Mary Lee responded.

The shark, which was tagged off the coast of Cape Cod, is among hundreds of sharks that OCEARCH, a Utah-based organization, has tagged and tracked since 2007.

The fake Twitter handle isn’t affiliated with OCEARCH. But OCEARCH expedition leader Chris Fischer, who named Mary Lee after his mother, says the organization appreciates the attention the maritime missives have generated.

“They’re really clever, they really like sharks and they’re on mission, so we’re just kind of rolling with it,” he said from the organization’s latest expedition in Australia.

OCEARCH has even jumped on the bandwagon, launching “official” Twitter handles for two other sharks it’s monitoring off the East Coast. @Shark—Katharine and @RockStarLydia both have sizable followings of their own.

The person behind the @MaryLeeShark account did surface when The Associated Press sent a Twitter message.

The account’s operator identified themselves only as a daily newspaper reporter living on the East Coast and expressed pleasant surprise at the attention — and OCEARCH’s support.

OCEARCH’s multi-year project uses GPS trackers affixed to the shark’s dorsal fin to post real time data on dozens of great whites across the globe — Mary Lee was hanging out near Ocean City, Maryland on Sunday, for example — with the goal of better understanding the shark’s life cycle and encouraging conservation of the endangered ocean predators.