{"id":278286,"date":"2026-02-11T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278286\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:04:08","slug":"massive-great-white-shark-contender-pings-off-north-carolina-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/278286\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive great white shark \u2018Contender\u2019 pings off North Carolina coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Contender,<\/a> <\/p>\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 nonprofit works to research ocean life by tracking their locations throughout their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Be on the lookout\u2014Contender the great white shark<\/a> has been pinged again in the Atlantic, about 45 miles southeast of Cape Fear, near Wilmington, North Carolina<\/a>, on Feb. 8, according to OCEARCH.<\/p>\n

Weighing in at almost 1,700 pounds, Contender is the largest male great white shark that OCEARCH has ever tagged in the Western North Atlantic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LARGEST MALE GREAT WHITE SHARK EVER RECORDED PINGED OFF NEW JERSEY COAST<\/a><\/p>\n

After being tagged last year off the Florida\/Georgia<\/a> coast, he spent much of January swimming along Florida\u2019<\/a>s coast.<\/p>\n

\"Contender <\/p>\n

Contender the white shark was tagged on January 17, 2025, off the FL\/GA coast.<\/p>\n

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

“Contender\u2019s SPOT tag will continue providing real-time location data for the next several years, supporting ongoing white shark research and conservation efforts,” OCEARCH stated in an Instagram post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘CONTENDER,’ LARGEST MALE GREAT WHITE SHARK EVER RECORDED IN ATLANTIC, REEMERGES OFF CANADIAN COAST<\/a><\/p>\n

The organization added that the great white was named Contender in honor of Contender Boats, Inc., which is a longtime OCEARCH partner whose boats support their offshore research missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Previously, Contender has been pinged off the Canadian<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a> and Massachusetts<\/a> coasts, to name a few.\u00a0<\/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

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

Contender and other sharks and sea animals like him can be tracked in real-time using the free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app<\/a>.<\/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 Florida\/Georgia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-278286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}