{"id":514358,"date":"2026-04-05T14:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514358\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:37:11","slug":"largest-male-white-shark-contenders-latest-ping-offers-insight-into-how-shark-behaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514358\/","title":{"rendered":"Largest male white shark &#8216;Contender\u2019s latest ping offers insight into how shark behaves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The latest location pings from Contender, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/02\/07\/us-news\/largest-shark-ever-tagged-by-research-group-swimming-off-the-florida-coast\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">largest adult male white shark tagged in the Atlantic<\/a>, are helping scientists to understand possible reasons for shark migration patterns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH tagged Contender in January 2025 off the\u00a0Florida\/Georgia coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since then, his location has been marked by satellite pings as he moves and migrates during the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, April 1, Contender was pinged past the Gulf Stream deep off the coast of\u00a0Georgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH scientists said his <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\">recent movements from near the coast of Florida<\/a> to rapidly moving out into deeper waters could be a sign of breeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis sudden movement could be to forage in deeper waters, but we cannot rule out the possibility that it\u2019s related to reproduction at this time of year,\u201d said OCEARCH Senior Data Scientist John Tyminski.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.60546875;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37337041\" width=\"357\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/45-miles-off-florida-georgia-113049173.jpg\" alt=\"Contender the 14 foot great white shark is studied in the North Atlantic Ocean on June 11, 2025.\" class=\"wp-image-37337041\"  \/>Contender is the largest adult male white shark tagged in the Atlantic. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>OCEARCH said these trends are common among mature male white sharks like Contender and Breton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since his tag on Wednesday, Contender has moved back closer to the Georgia coast, still in deeper waters, but just on the edge of the Gulf Stream.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Clocking in at nearly 14 feet long and roughly 1,650 pounds at the time of his tagging, Contender is OCEARCH\u2019s largest male white shark ever tagged in the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.61132813;display:block\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38464528\" width=\"361\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/105-miles-off-coast-charleston-117024218.jpg\" alt=\"A large great white shark being held next to a boat by researchers.\" class=\"wp-image-38464528\"  \/>OCEARCH first tagged Contender in January 2025 off the\u00a0Florida\/Georgia coast. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n<p>His movements have taken him all around the East Coast of the US, and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/09\/us-news\/contender-atlantic-biggest-great-white-shark-surfaces-in-canada\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">up into\u00a0Canada<\/a>.\u00a0<\/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.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest location pings from Contender, the largest adult male white shark tagged in the Atlantic, are helping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[32776,2841,33461,90,5341,56,54,55,1384,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-514358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-atlantic-ocean","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-great-white-sharks","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sharks","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}