Brenna Cooper
If you're planning a holiday to the east coast of the US this summer beware, as the area is now home to the largest male great white shark on record.
And he could be coming to a beach near you this summer.
Named Contender — unfortunately not for status as contender for biggest prey in the known ocean — this mega shark was discovered back in January, about 45 miles off the coast of the Florida-Georgia boarder.
Discovered by global shark tracker OCEARCH, Contender reportedly measures at 13 feet nine inches long and tips the scales to a whopping 749.79 kg.
Advert
To put that into context, the average male in the UK is around 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 84.5 kg, so you can see that Contender is a pretty chunky boy.
However he is not the biggest shark ever recorded, with that honour going to a female great white who came in at 19.1 feet in length and around 2,000 kg in weight.
Definitely not a creature you'd want to encounter while swimming around in the sea.
Researchers at OCEARCH have since tagged this beast of the seas in hopes that his data will help with understanding shark migration patterns.
The group has also collected biological samples, including urogenital material (which is the shark's genital region), for analysis.
Keen to take a trip to the eastern coast of Florida but don't fancy encountering Contender in the waters, or just curious to learn more about the migration patterns of great white sharks in the Atlantic?
Advert
Well, you'll be pleased to know that OCEARCH post regular Contender location updates onto their website.
After being tagged near the boarder on 17 January, Contender journeyed north before doing a u-turn and heading back down to Florida's coast.
His last location was recorded on 10 February and pinged in a stretch of ocean which is close to the John F. Kennedy Space Centre, just under an hour away from Orlando.
If you're interested in tracking Contender or any of the other marine creatures which OCEARCH are studying, check it out yourself here.
According to statistics from the Florida Museum of Natural History, your odds of being attacked by a shark stand at around 1 in 11.5 million (via WLRN) - which means you'd have to be fairly unlucky.
Advert
However unprovoked bites aren't unheard of, with 47 of the 88 bites recorded by International Shark Attack File being unprovoked.