By admin 
Having been tracked since the start of 2025, the biggest great white shark ever recorded has travelled over 1,000 miles.
And he’s now getting pretty close to the coast of a popular tourist destination.
Contender measures in at 14 feet with a weight of a whopping 1,700 pounds and was tagged by researchers at OCEARCH on 17 January last year. His tracking story has been described as one of the organisation’s ‘most fascinating’, going from the Florida-Georgia coast into Canada.
The scientists previously described him as ‘one of the furthest northern pinging sharks that we’ve had’, having pinged close to Quebec in September.
But now he’s made his way back down to the US and has found himself in Florida. Contender returned to shore on 12 March, at peak breeding season.
He’s particularly of interest to science as the team reckon the whopper could hold the key to one of the many mysteries of the ocean: where great whites mate.
Researchers are now watching his every move, and those visiting the spot in Florida may also be thinking about doing the same.
His most recent ‘ping’ on the tracker last week put him about six miles off St Augustine, the ‘oldest city’ in the country found on the state’s northeast coast, known for its sandy beaches.
This location is rather significant to research both because of his proximity to shore and the timing of his return to Florida waters as he comes much closer to the coastline than his previous positions further north.
Just last month, Contender was off Cape Fear, North Carolina.
“Contender has become a pretty famous shark, in part because he’s the largest mature male that OCEARCH has ever tagged,” said John P. Tyminski, senior data scientist at OCEARCH.
Contender could provide important answers for scientists. (SWNS)
“He’s shown very interesting movements – gone all the way up into the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the summer and has come all the way back down,”
Contender is described as ‘sexually mature’, meaning his movement patterns could provide crucial insights into the reproductive biology of great white sharks.
Scientists reckon this late winter and early spring period may be critical for mating among these creatures.
“Keeping an eye on white sharks like Contender can give us some indirect clues as to where mating may be occurring,” Tyminski said.
“It is definitely one of the questions that we still really want to try to answer to help protect and conserve white sharks.”
Well, maybe this spot not far from the popular tourist destination is where Contender ends up providing those answers.
If you’ve ever seen Jaws, then you might start to have an idea of where this is going. This ferocious fish is named Contender and he was tagged in the North Atlantic in January this year by OCEARCH, a group that researches the more massive examples of marine life.
Tagging involved getting close to the great white shark with a research vessel and capturing him, then collecting samples and attaching a satellite tag to his dorsal fin so they can see where he is.
Experts reckon that Contender is about 30 years old, and the information gathered from him and other aquatic animals helps researchers work on conservation efforts and take care of habitats.
As much as great white sharks might be the ocean’s toughest denizens, at least until killer whales show up to hunt them, they’re a part of the ecosystem and we’ve got to look out for them.
Contender is a whopper (OCEARCH)
Where was the shark found?
Contender was first found back in January 45 miles off the Florida-Georgia coast, off Jacksonville, and subsequent pings spotted him swimming around the Florida coastline.
Sharks do move around a lot to find food sources and now we know where Contender is, we can look at the patterns he exhibits when he’s on the move.
The great white shark was spotted doing a U-turn and then pinged near the John F. Kennedy Space Centre.
Perhaps this shark wants to go to space.
How big is the biggest great white shark?
Contender might be the biggest male great white shark in the Atlantic, but he’s certainly not the biggest overall.
This shark is just under 14ft long and weighs about 750kg, meaning that if you lined him up against the shark from Jaws, who was a whopping 25ft, he’d be roughly 10ft shorter and look puny by comparison.
Fortunately, that shark was only a model.
However, when it comes to great white sharks, it’s the ladies who are larger as the average Mrs Shark is about 15ft long, meaning they’re already larger than big boy Contender.
There are much bigger ones elsewhere in the Earth’s oceans too, as there’s a great white shark called Deep Blue who is about 20ft long and weighs about 2,000kg.
What do scientists think about Contender?
Meet Contender the shark, he’s around the coast (SWNS)
Experts reckon that Contender is heading for a certain part of the US coastline so he can eat a lot of food and build up his energy for a big journey.
Dr. Harley Newton, OCEARCH’s chief scientist and veterinarian, from Ponte Vedra, Florida, explained the behaviour of great white shark.
She said: “This time of year white sharks are starting their late spring/early summer migration (16 May to 30 June) moving from their southern overwintering area to their summer/fall foraging areas in the northeastern US and Atlantic Canada.”
Dr Newton said: “We often see the sharks on our global shark tracker spend a period of time off the Outer Banks right before they move north, which is what white shark Contender appears to be doing.
“This may be due to rich food resources in the region and would serve as a time to feed and prepare before what may be a journey of 1,000 miles or more.”
Let’s hope he enjoys his feeding frenzy.
Where is Contender now?
The recent pings which happen when the shark’s fin goes above the surface of the water pinged up on 7 June that Contender was off the coast of North Carolina near Pamlico Sound.
If you want to track Contender the shark then OCEARCH has their own gizmo through which you can track his movements between the time he was tagged in January and his last ping earlier this month.