Contender's latest ping reveals the location of the Atlantic’s largest recorded male great white is a mystery

NORTH CAROLINA — Contender, the largest male great white shark ever recorded in the Atlantic, is on the move again following his latest location ping in the Outer Banks in April.

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Weighing in at almost 1,700 pounds and measuring nearly 14 feet, his latest Z-ping went off on Thursday, June 25, according to OCEARCH's global shark tracker. 

First tagged in January 2025 off the Florida-Georgia coast, he has continued providing real-time data that supports migration research and helps advance future ocean conservation efforts.

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According to OCEARCH, when a shark is tagged, a SPOT satellite tag is attached to its dorsal fin. 

The device utilizes two copper contacts that form a closed circuit underwater. When the shark breaks the surface, the circuit is broken, which "wakes up" the tag to transmit a location signal.

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"If the shark stays at the surface for 10, 20, 30 seconds, we'll get a good fix on where the shark is," OCEARCH Chief Scientist Dr. Robert Hueter said. 

However, if it is only a quick, transient transmission, it is classified as a Z-ping. This tells researchers that the shark surfaced, but the signal was too brief to calculate its coordinates.

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"It’s really a miracle of science," Hueter said.

Contender and other sharks and sea animals like him can be tracked in real-time using the free OCEARCH Global Shark Tracker app.