Largest male great white shark ever recorded pinged off New Jersey coast
The white shark is most likely on the move back down to Florida where waters are warmer and there are more food sources, but well have to see where he shows up next.
FILE: Top 'Contender': nonprofit OCEARCH tags largest great white shark on record in Atlantic
Contender, a 14-foot, 1,600 pound adult male great white shark was tagged by OCEARCH in January near the Florida/Georgia line. The nonproft works to research ocean life by tracking their locations throughout their lives.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.– Contender, the largest male great white shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move once again.
Contender, an adult male white shark, was tagged by OCEARCH in January, off the Florida/Georgia coastline.
At a whopping 1653 pounds and 13 feet long, Contender is estimated to be about 32 years old, according to OCEARCH.
OCEARCH is a global nonprofit that tracks some of the ocean's giants and marine ecosystems in order to collect essential data to better understand these species and the ocean.
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Contender the great white shark being tagged in the Atlantic Ocean. (OCEARCH / FOX Weather)
Since January, Contender has been pinged migrating from Florida up the East Coast into Canada. Now, he's beginning his trek back down the coast.
For a ping to register, Contender's dorsal fin must break water and an Argos satellite must be nearby to record the shark's location.
From April to mid-June, Contender was pinged hanging out off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. At one point in June, he was pinged roughly 22 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras.
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Watch: Atlantic Ocean's largest recorded male great white shark gets tagged for tracking
Video from OCEARCH shows Contender, a massive adult great white shark being tagged off the Florida/Georgia coast in January 2025. Contender is the largest recorded great white shark in the Atlantic.
He continued migrating north in July and was pinged again in mid-July off the coast of Massachusetts, according to OCEARCH data.
After several months of no pings from Contender, the next time his location was tracked was in late September, south of Pointe-Parent in the province of Quebec.
From Oct. 27-29, he was pinged multiple times, moving south from Canada back down toward the U.S. for the fall migration season.
Contender, the 14-foot, 1600 pound great white shark on the day he was tagged by OCEARCH in January 2025. (OCEARCH / FOX Weather)
Nearly two weeks later, on Tuesday, he was pinged several miles off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
"Each ping adds another clue to the puzzle of white shark migration in the Western North Atlantic—and our team is tracking every move," OCEARCH said.
The white shark is most likely on the move back down to Florida where waters are warmer and there are more food sources, but well have to see where he shows up next.
Contender and other sharks and sea animals like him can be tracked in real-time using the free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app.