{"id":551296,"date":"2026-03-21T13:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551296\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T13:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:47:08","slug":"largest-male-great-white-shark-contender-returns-to-waters-off-floridas-coast-in-time-for-spring-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551296\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest male great white shark &#8216;Contender&#8217; returns to waters off Florida&#8217;s coast in time for Spring break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/13\/us-news\/largest-male-great-white-shark-ever-recorded-pinged-off-new-jersey-coast\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atlantic Ocean\u2019s largest male white shark on record<\/a> is on the move once again, returning to a familiar spot near the Florida\/Georgia\u00a0coastline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Contender was tagged by OCEARCH in a similar area slightly closer to the coastline in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since then, he has traveled up the coast, spending long periods of time around the Carolinas, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/09\/us-news\/contender-atlantic-biggest-great-white-shark-surfaces-in-canada\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">traveling further north up into Canadian waters<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/21\/us-news\/largest-male-shark-contender-spotted-moving-south-near-florida-georgia-line\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">back south again to the\u00a0Florida\u00a0coast<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In recent days, Contender has pinged several times along the Florida coast. The most recent was on Thursday afternoon, in the waters just north of\u00a0Jacksonville.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the time of his tagging, Contender was nearly 14 feet long, and estimated to weigh 1,653 pounds, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocearch.org\/tracker\/detail\/contender\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">OCEARCH<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH scientists estimated Contender to be about 32 years old when he was tagged.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.62207031;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38850775\" width=\"367\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/largest-male-great-white-shark-124116052.jpg\" alt=\"A large great white shark being held alongside a boat by a man, with another man in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-38850775\"  \/>Contender, the Atlantic\u2019s largest male white shark, was spotted near Jacksonville, Florida. OCEARCHsharktracke\/youtube<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of white sharks like Contender spend their winters and early spring days around Florida in search of food.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A recent OCEARCH study found that the Gulf of America serves as a regular winter habitat for white sharks migrating thousands of miles from Atlantic Canada and\u00a0Northeastern\u00a0US.<\/p>\n<p>While Contender has never ventured into the Gulf since being tagged, many of OCEARCH\u2019s tagged white sharks have made a recent visit or are there currently.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.59472656;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38850773\" width=\"351\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/largest-male-great-white-shark-124116053.jpg\" alt=\"A great white shark, nicknamed Contender, surfaces next to a boat's bright orange buoys in the water.\" class=\"wp-image-38850773\"  \/>Tagged by OCEARCH, Contender measures nearly 14 feet and weighs around 1,653 pounds. OCEARCHsharktracke\/youtube<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH\u00a0is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and protecting sharks, whales, sea turtles and other\u00a0ocean\u00a0life, tagging these animals to track and study their migration habits and behaviors from afar.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned to see where Contender ventures next, along with more than 475 other ocean animals using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ocearch.org\/education\/shark-tracker-free-app\/#&amp;_intcmp=fxw_earth-space_article_main-content_article-body_2_8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">OCEARCH\u2019s free global shark tracker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlantic Ocean\u2019s largest male white shark on record is on the move once again, returning to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[7382,49,48,6388,41189,66,4778,886,323],"class_list":["post-551296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-florida","tag-great-white-sharks","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}