Nature
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This is Contender, the largest male great white shark that’s been caught, tagged, and released in the Atlantic. Measuring 4.19 meters (13 feet 9 inches), this heavyweight predator has been quietly stalking up and down the US East Coast, where scientists hope his presence signals the revival of the region’s once-struggling great white population.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Contender was caught, tagged, and released by the non-profit OCEARCH on January 17, 2025, near the coast of Florida and Georgia, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) offshore.
Over the following months, his tracker showed him heading south along Florida’s coast before disappearing for nearly four weeks. He resurfaced in April off North Carolina, lurking there until early June before going silent again. His most recent “ping,” on July 18, placed him near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, a known hotspot for shark activity.
Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) inhabit coastal and offshore waters globally, undertaking genuinely epic migrations that span thousands of kilometers. However, they tend to stick within just three genetically distinct populations in the North Atlantic/Mediterranean, the North Pacific, and the Indo-Pacific regions. This trio of geographic lineages separated from each other between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, and they scarcely come into contact with each other today.
At an estimated 750 kilograms (1,653 pounds), Contender is a true giant – especially for a male. While female sharks often tower over their male counterparts, averaging approximately 4.6 to 4.9 meters (15 to 16 feet) compared with the 3.4 to 4.0 meters (11 to 13 feet) typical of males, Contender still commands attention as a colossal force of nature in his own right.
“Although we have tagged and released a number of sharks as part of this project, animals of adult size have proven elusive,” Dr Harley Newton, OCEARCH’s chief veterinarian and senior veterinary scientist, told Oceanographic in February 2025.
“Male white sharks are mature at around 11.5 feet and 26 years of age, so Contender at 14 feet is an adult male probably in his early 30’s and early in his reproductive life. He is an important part of the effective breeding population and will hopefully contribute to the rebuilding of the western North Atlantic white shark population,” she added.
OCEARCH has tagged much larger females in the North Atlantic. For instance, there’s Mary Lee, measuring 4.8 meters (16 feet) and weighing an estimated 1,197 kilograms (2,639 pounds). There’s also Nukumi, a female measuring 5.2 meters (17 feet 2 inches) who hasn’t been recorded since 2021.
The largest great white shark ever recorded is a female affectionately named Deep Blue, who measures over 6 meters long (20 feet) from tip to tail and is likely to be around 50 years old.
Yet despite her size and fame, Deep Blue is an enigma. She is believed to have first been spotted in the 1990s, though not properly recorded, and has since become the subject of several high-profile sightings, some of which remain unverified. Confirmed footage is rare and her current whereabouts are totally unknown.
