{"id":905568,"date":"2026-07-01T14:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/905568\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:08:17","slug":"contender-worlds-largest-male-great-white-shark-latest-ping-mystifies-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/905568\/","title":{"rendered":"Contender world’s largest male great white shark latest ping mystifies scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contender, the largest male great white <\/a>shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move again following his latest location ping in the\u00a0Outer Banks\u00a0in April.<\/a><\/p>\n

Weighing in at almost 1,700 pounds<\/a> and measuring nearly 14 feet, his latest Z-ping went off on Thursday, June 25, according to OCEARCH\u2019s global\u00a0shark\u00a0tracker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First tagged in January 2025 off the\u00a0Florida-Georgia\u00a0coast,<\/a> he has continued providing real-time data that supports migration research and helps advance future\u00a0ocean\u00a0conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

According to OCEARCH, when a shark is tagged, a SPOT satellite tag is attached to its dorsal fin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The device utilizes two copper contacts that form a closed circuit underwater.<\/a><\/p>\n

When the\u00a0shark\u00a0breaks the surface, the circuit is broken, which \u201cwakes up\u201d the tag to transmit a location signal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the shark stays at the surface for 10, 20, 30 seconds, we\u2019ll get a good fix on where the shark is,\u201d OCEARCH Chief Scientist Dr. Robert Hueter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, if it is only a quick, transient transmission, it is classified as a Z-ping.<\/p>\n

Contender, the great white shark, is studied by OCEARCH researchers in the Atlantic Ocean. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Weighing in at almost 1,700 pounds and measuring nearly 14 feet, his latest Z-ping went off on Thursday, June 25. OCEARCH \/ SWNS<\/p>\n

Contender\u2019s last known location was off the coast of the Outer Banks in April. OCEARCH<\/p>\n

This tells researchers that the shark surfaced, but the signal was too brief to calculate its coordinates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a miracle of\u00a0science,\u201d Hueter said.<\/p>\n

Contender and other sharks and sea animals like him can be tracked in real-time using the\u00a0free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contender, the largest male great white shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move again following…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":905569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[3808,3809,7052,159,2415,67,132,68,1154,837],"class_list":["post-905568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-great-white-sharks","tag-marine-life","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116845117868789147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}