{"id":358196,"date":"2026-03-21T18:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358196\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:28:22","slug":"contender-largest-male-white-shark-in-atlantic-pings-off-florida-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/358196\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Contender’ largest male white shark in Atlantic pings off Florida coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Ocean’s largest male white shark on record is on the move once again, returning to a familiar spot near the Florida\/Georgia<\/a> coastline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contender was tagged by OCEARCH in a similar area slightly closer to the coastline in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LARGEST SHARK EVER TAGGED BY RESEARCH GROUP SWIMMING OFF THE FLORIDA COAST<\/a><\/p>\n

Since then, he has traveled up the coast, spending long periods of time around the Carolinas, traveling further north up into Canadian waters, and back south again to the Florida<\/a> coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 Jacksonville<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEARLY 1,400-POUND GREAT WHITE SHARK ‘GOODALL’ PINGS NEAR GULF COAST AS SPRING BREAKERS HIT THE BEACH<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Contender's <\/p>\n

Contender’s first ping in Jan. 2025 compared to his most recent ping on Thursday, March 19, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(OCEARCH)<\/p>\n

At the time of his tagging, Contender was nearly 14 feet long, and estimated to weigh 1,653 pounds, according to OCEARCH<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OCEARCH scientists estimated Contender to be about 32 years old when he was tagged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dozens of white sharks like Contender spend their winters and early spring days around Florida in search of food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEW RESEARCH FINDS GULF OF AMERICA IS THE IDEAL HABITAT FOR GREAT WHITE SHARKS DURING THE WINTER<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Contender, <\/p>\n

Contender, the 14-foot, 1600 pound great white shark on the day he was tagged by OCEARCH in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(OCEARCH \/ FOX Weather)<\/p>\n

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 Northeastern<\/a> U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Contender has never ventured into the Gulf since being tagged, many of OCEARCH’s tagged white sharks have made a recent visit or are there currently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OCEARCH<\/a> is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and protecting sharks, whales, sea turtles and other ocean<\/a> life, tagging these animals to track and study their migration habits and behaviors from afar.<\/p>\n

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Contender <\/p>\n

Contender the great white shark being tagged in the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(OCEARCH \/ FOX Weather)<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to see where Contender ventures next, along with more than 475 other ocean animals using OCEARCH’s free global shark tracker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contender, a 14-foot, 1,600 pound adult male great white shark was tagged by OCEARCH in January near the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[264,2195,6786,61,60,14733,82,90,263],"class_list":["post-358196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ocean","tag-science","tag-us","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}