{"id":773530,"date":"2026-07-01T15:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/773530\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:15:11","slug":"contender-worlds-largest-male-great-white-shark-latest-ping-mystifies-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/773530\/","title":{"rendered":"Contender world&#8217;s largest male great white shark latest ping mystifies scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/21\/us-news\/largest-male-great-white-shark-contender-returns-to-waters-off-floridas-coast-in-time-for-spring-break\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Contender, the largest male great white <\/a>shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move again following his latest location ping in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/05\/us-news\/largest-male-white-shark-contenders-latest-ping-offers-insight-into-how-shark-behaves\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Outer Banks\u00a0in April.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Weighing in at almost <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\">1,700 pounds<\/a> and measuring nearly 14 feet, his latest Z-ping went off on Thursday, June 25, according to OCEARCH\u2019s global\u00a0shark\u00a0tracker.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>First tagged in January 2025 off the\u00a0<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\">Florida-Georgia\u00a0coast,<\/a> he has continued providing real-time data that supports migration research and helps advance future\u00a0ocean\u00a0conservation efforts.<\/p>\n<p>According to OCEARCH, when a shark is tagged, a SPOT satellite tag is attached to its dorsal fin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The device utilizes two copper contacts that form <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/09\/us-news\/contender-atlantic-biggest-great-white-shark-surfaces-in-canada\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a closed circuit underwater.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When the\u00a0shark\u00a0breaks the surface, the circuit is broken, which \u201cwakes up\u201d the tag to transmit a location signal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the shark stays at the surface for 10, 20, 30 seconds, we\u2019ll get a good fix on where the shark is,\u201d OCEARCH Chief Scientist Dr. Robert Hueter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, if it is only a quick, transient transmission, it is classified as a Z-ping.<\/p>\n<p>Contender, the great white shark, is studied by OCEARCH researchers in the Atlantic Ocean. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>Weighing in at almost 1,700 pounds and measuring nearly 14 feet, his latest Z-ping went off on Thursday, June 25. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>Contender\u2019s last known location was off the coast of the Outer Banks in April. OCEARCH<\/p>\n<p>This tells researchers that the shark surfaced, but the signal was too brief to calculate its coordinates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really a miracle of\u00a0science,\u201d Hueter said.<\/p>\n<p>Contender and other sharks and sea animals like him can be tracked in real-time using the<a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__https:\/www.ocearch.org\/app\/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!wn5cOGJTJEolQJUxlzmoEUsdM6UwsvywMEOAvZq3xWeWRLq75RQcgYjvgWN7kVBZkJoBD3FaQ2DynEKUffQQf-4%24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u00a0free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contender, the largest male great white shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move again following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[7382,49,48,41189,31002,66,4778,886,323],"class_list":["post-773530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-great-white-sharks","tag-marine-life","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773530","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=773530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}