The largest male great white shark in the world was spotted lurking off the east coast of Florida, United States.
It is immense, of a size never seen before in the Atlantic region. When it was near the coastal areas, a team of experts managed to tag it and named it “Contender”.
Why is the great white shark so feared
Although their attacks are very rare, great white sharks are considered the most dangerous in the world due to their large size. So much so that this carnivore, a solitary and fierce predator, is nicknamed “the killer of the sea” by many.
Contender, the huge great white shark found in the Atlantic, was tagged by the non-profit organization OCEARCH, dedicated to tracking sharks, and was named “Contender” while swimming off the east coast of Florida, near Brevard County.
Characteristics of Contender
Measuring over 4 meters in length and weighing 750 kilograms, this is the largest male great white shark ever recorded in that Atlantic area.
Contender was first tagged on January 17, 70 kilometers (45 miles) off the coast of Florida and Georgia, and has since moved about 470 kilometers (292 miles) further inland and southward.
OCEARCH described Contender as a “true ocean giant” on their social media.
“Although we have tagged and released several sharks as part of this project, adult-sized animals have proven to be elusive,” explained Dr. Harley Newton, chief veterinarian and senior veterinary scientist of the organization, in an interview with Oceanographic.
All the data was collected through the technology called Spot. It consists of a chip placed on the dorsal fin of the animal, tracking all its movements.
This mechanism allows understanding its behavior and how its threat grows as it reaches highly populated areas of the United States, such as Florida.
The Spot tag attached to Contender “will provide valuable data in real time for approximately five years, which will help us track its movements and understand its migration patterns. We have also collected important biological samples, including urogenital material, which are currently being analyzed,” explained OCEARCH’s account.
What great white sharks are like
“Male great white sharks reach maturity when they are about 3.5 meters long and 26 years old, so Contender, at 4.2 meters, is an adult male of about 30 years old and is in an early stage of its reproductive life,” Newton detailed in the interview. “He is an important part of the effective breeding population and, hopefully, will contribute to the rebuilding of the white shark population in the northwestern North Atlantic.”
Where is Contender, the great white shark
Great white sharks migrate along the east coast of the United States, heading south from New England when the water cools and food becomes scarce, so Contender will emit signals from places far off the coast of Florida.
Although he is the largest male shark in the Atlantic, he is much smaller than “Deep Blue”, the female great white shark swimming in the Pacific and holding the special distinction of being the largest known great white shark in the world, measuring almost 6 meters (19 feet).
What does the white shark eat and how does it hunt
The white shark has a size ranging from 500 to 580 cm with a particularity: females are larger than males.
The great white shark, the largest predator in the world, feeds on bony fish, cartilaginous fish, marine mammals, cetaceans, seabirds, cephalopods, crustaceans, and sometimes attacks whales.
The great white shark is fast and has various ways to approach its prey: with large prey, it kills the victim, and with small prey, it can swallow the whole animal.
According to a study by the University of Sydney, the great white shark spends more time feeding in mid-water and on the seabed than near the surface.
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