Largest male nice white shark ‘Contender’ returns to waters off Florida’s coast in time for Spring break
The Atlantic Ocean’s largest male white shark on document is on the transfer as soon as once more, returning to a well-known spot close to the Florida/Georgia shoreline.
Contender was tagged by OCEARCH in an analogous space barely nearer to the shoreline in January 2025.
Since then, he has traveled up the coast, spending lengthy durations of time across the Carolinas, touring additional north up into Canadian waters and again south once more to the Florida coast.
In current days, Contender has pinged a number of occasions alongside the Florida coast. The latest was on Thursday afternoon, within the waters simply north of Jacksonville.
On the time of his tagging, Contender was almost 14 toes lengthy, and estimated to weigh 1,653 kilos, in keeping with OCEARCH.
OCEARCH scientists estimated Contender to be about 32 years outdated when he was tagged.
Dozens of white sharks like Contender spend their winters and early spring days round Florida searching for meals.
A current OCEARCH examine discovered that the Gulf of America serves as an everyday winter habitat for white sharks migrating 1000’s of miles from Atlantic Canada and Northeastern US.
Whereas Contender has by no means ventured into the Gulf since being tagged, a lot of OCEARCH’s tagged white sharks have made a current go to or are there at the moment.
OCEARCH is a worldwide nonprofit group devoted to researching and defending sharks, whales, sea turtles and different ocean life, tagging these animals to trace and examine their migration habits and behaviors from afar.
Keep tuned to see the place Contender ventures subsequent, together with greater than 475 different ocean animals utilizing OCEARCH’s free world shark tracker app.
