Biggest male great white shark ever tracked located near New Jersey shore

Contender, the Largest Male Great White Shark, is on the Move

Contender, the largest male great white shark ever documented in the Atlantic, is making his trek once more.

This adult male, weighing in at 1,653 pounds and stretching 13 feet long, was tagged by OCEARCH off the coasts of Florida and Georgia back in January. Interestingly, he’s estimated to be around 32 years old.

OCEARCH, a nonprofit dedicated to studying marine life, tracks these ocean giants to gather important data about them and their habitats. Since his tagging, Contender has been reported moving northwards from Florida along the East Coast and into Canadian waters.

Now, it seems he’s starting to make his way back down.

For OCEARCH to receive signals from Contender, his dorsal fin needs to breach the water’s surface while an Argos satellite is nearby to capture his location. From April to mid-June, he was spotted off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and in June, data showed him about 32 miles off Cape Hatteras.

OCEARCH’s information indicates that he continued heading north in July, reaching Massachusetts by mid-month. After several months where no signals were detected, his next ping came in late September near Point Parent, Quebec.

Between October 27th and 29th, reports came through as he moved south toward the United States for his fall migration.

Then, just a couple of weeks later, on a Tuesday, there was a ping from just a few miles off Atlantic City, New Jersey.

OCEARCH remarked, “Each ping provides fresh insights into the migration patterns of great white sharks in the western North Atlantic, and our team diligently tracks their movements.”

It’s likely that great white sharks are heading back to Florida, where the warmer waters and abundant food sources await, but it remains to be seen where they’ll pop up next.