Biggest great white shark ever recorded in Atlantic resurfaces for first time in months
Contender, the 14ft behemoth great white shark who stalks the Eastern seaboard of the US, has resurfaced for the first time in months.
Tagged by researchers at environmental non-profit OCEARCH in January last year, Contender's life at sea has been heavily tracked in order to learn more about the animal's migratory pattern.
In the past year and a half since being tagged, Contender has travelled well over 1,000 miles along the Eastern coast of America, popping up in spots along the coast of Florida and all the way to Quebec.
However, it's not the shark's lifestyle which is of interest to many but instead his size, as the shark measures 14ft in length and weighs 1,700 pounds.
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To put that into some context, here is Contender next to researchers and their boat.
After spending months existing underwater and therefore off the radar, Contender has surfaced long enough for researchers to get a Z-ping and prove that he is still prowling around the Atlantic Ocean.
Unfortunately, researchers do not have an exact location for Contender, as the ping was not strong enough to determine a location.
Explaining why researchers were unable to determine an approximate location, a spokesperson for OCEARCH said: "The Z-ping is a weak non-locational ping. It typically occurs when the shark's fin-mounted tag is briefly at the surface and just one single message is received by an overhead Argos satellite.
"Normally, three or more messages are needed during a single satellite pass to calculate a reliable location."
The ping is understood to have occurred on 7 July during the early hours of the morning.
It's been nearly three months since a location ping was last received for Contender, with the shark being located close to North Carolina.
"The last actual location for Contender was on April 23 when he was off the Outer Banks of North Carolina," the spokesperson continued.
Although researchers were unable to get an exact location for Contender, it's likely that he was heading north - a location which offers 'comfortable temperatures' and prey such as seals and large fish - which fits with expected migratory patterns at this time of year.
"White sharks in the western North Atlantic typically migrate north and spend the summer and early fall foraging in the waters of Cape Cod or Atlantic Canada," the spokesperson added.
"These two regions offer comfortable water temperatures and an abundant food supply, in particular abundant seals and large fish species."
Topics: Sharks, Animals, Environment
Brenna Cooper