Massive Shark Measuring Nearly 14 Feet Long Becomes Largest Male Great White Tagged by Researchers

Known as Contender, this massive apex predator is the largest ever studied among the Northwest Atlantic white shark population

A nearly 14-foot-long male great white shark has become the largest ever of its kind to be tagged and studied by researchers.

The massive apex predator known as Contender is the largest that has “ever caught, SPOT tagged, released and now studied in the NW Atlantic shark population,” Ocearch, a global non-profit that tracks sharks and other sea life in real time, confirmed on Instagram on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

First discovered 45 miles off the Georgia-Florida coast on Jan. 17, Contender is 13 feet, 8 inches long and weighs 1,652.8 lbs, Ocearch previously reported on Instagram on Jan. 27. At the time, the organization said, “Contender will provide valuable real-time data for approximately five years, helping us track his movements and understand his migration patterns.”

Ocearch also shared that this amazing shark’s moniker was “in honor of Contender Boats, a longtime OCEARCH partner, whose industry-leading sport fishing and pleasure boats enable our research missions.”

Since Jan. 17, the shark’s tag has made several pings in the Atlantic Ocean along the coastline, with him popping up in the waters off of Oak Hill, Fla. on Feb. 9, according to Osearch’s tracking site. Contender has been “zig-zagging between Amelia Island and Jacksonville Beach before swimming south to the waters off St. Augustine on Feb. 6, Volusia County on Feb. 8 and 9 before heading to Brevard County waters,” Florida Today reported.

His latest ping was on Feb. 10, far off the coast of Merritt Island, where the John F. Kennedy Space Center is located. Per Florida Today, Monday’s ping occurred just one day before a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on Feb. 11.

While Contender has set new records, especially among the NW Atlantic shark population, he’s still a few feet shy of Deep Blue, a female great white reportedly measuring nearly 20 feet long first discovered in 2013, according to Newsweek.

She later garnered media attention in 2018 and was the subject of a 2019 National Geographic Wild documentary World’s Biggest Great White? Expedition Hawaii, which captured the sea creature eating a sperm whale off the coast of Oahu.