Biggest male great white shark ever recorded in Atlantic Ocean on move to popular US holiday destination
The biggest male great white shark researchers have ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean is heading for a holiday hotspot in the US.
If you've ever seen Jaws, then you might start to have an idea of where this is going. This ferocious fish is named Contender and he was tagged in the North Atlantic in January this year by OCEARCH, a group that researches the more massive examples of marine life.
Tagging involved getting close to the great white shark with a research vessel and capturing him, then collecting samples and attaching a satellite tag to his dorsal fin so they can see where he is.
Experts reckon that Contender is about 30 years old, and the information gathered from him and other aquatic animals helps researchers work on conservation efforts and take care of habitats.
Advert
As much as great white sharks might be the ocean's toughest denizens, at least until killer whales show up to hunt them, they're a part of the ecosystem and we've got to look out for them.
Where was the shark found?
Contender was first found back in January 45 miles off the Florida-Georgia coast, off Jacksonville, and subsequent pings spotted him swimming around the Florida coastline.
Sharks do move around a lot to find food sources and now we know where Contender is, we can look at the patterns he exhibits when he's on the move.
The great white shark was spotted doing a U-turn and then pinged near the John F. Kennedy Space Centre.
Perhaps this shark wants to go to space.
How big is the biggest great white shark?
Contender might be the biggest male great white shark in the Atlantic, but he's certainly not the biggest overall.
This shark is just under 14ft long and weighs about 750kg, meaning that if you lined him up against the shark from Jaws, who was a whopping 25ft, he'd be roughly 10ft shorter and look puny by comparison.
Fortunately, that shark was only a model.
However, when it comes to great white sharks, it's the ladies who are larger as the average Mrs Shark is about 15ft long, meaning they're already larger than big boy Contender.
There are much bigger ones elsewhere in the Earth's oceans too, as there's a great white shark called Deep Blue who is about 20ft long and weighs about 2,000kg.
What do scientists think about Contender?
Experts reckon that Contender is heading for a certain part of the US coastline so he can eat a lot of food and build up his energy for a big journey.
Dr. Harley Newton, OCEARCH's chief scientist and veterinarian, from Ponte Vedra, Florida, explained the behaviour of great white shark.
She said: "This time of year white sharks are starting their late spring/early summer migration (16 May to 30 June) moving from their southern overwintering area to their summer/fall foraging areas in the northeastern US and Atlantic Canada."
Dr Newton said: "We often see the sharks on our global shark tracker spend a period of time off the Outer Banks right before they move north, which is what white shark Contender appears to be doing.
"This may be due to rich food resources in the region and would serve as a time to feed and prepare before what may be a journey of 1,000 miles or more."
Let's hope he enjoys his feeding frenzy.
Where is Contender now?
The recent pings which happen when the shark's fin goes above the surface of the water pinged up on 7 June that Contender was off the coast of North Carolina near Pamlico Sound.
If you want to track Contender the shark then OCEARCH has their own gizmo through which you can track his movements between the time he was tagged in January and his last ping earlier this month.
Joe Harker