Overview
- Ocean tracking stations registered a new ping from Contender roughly 45 nautical miles (about 83 km) southeast of Cape Fear near Wilmington, North Carolina, early this week.
- Researchers had not received a surface transmission from the shark for more than two months before the latest detection.
- Contender measures about 4.2 meters in length and weighs roughly 750–770 kilograms, making him the largest male white shark recorded by Ocearch.
- Previous tracking shows migrations from Florida’s Atlantic coast to Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, with movements generally near the coastline but typically not closer than about 60 kilometers to beaches.
- Ocearch says the spot-tag will keep delivering real-time location data to support ongoing white shark research and conservation, as public interest continues via the organization’s online tracker.