Colossal Great White Shark Spotted: What This Record-Breaking Tracker Ping Reveals Will Astonish You

Alright, shark enthusiasts, brace yourselves—because the biggest male great white shark ever tagged, known charmingly as Contender, has checked back in, and boy, has he logged some serious ocean miles since his last cameo. Now, if you ever thought lions owned the “king” title, think again—great whites are the undisputed overlords of the sea. I mean, how many aquatic animals get their own Hollywood series? Aside from maybe Nemo’s clownfish crew, not many. But let me ask you: if sharks are the ultimate villains in movies (except when Jack Black’s chillin’ in Shark Tale), what happens when real-life giants like Contender decide to play hide-and-seek up the U.S. coast? Standing nearly 14 feet and tipping the scales at 750 kilograms, this dude isn’t just big—he’s a titanic tempest of tooth and tail, recently making waves near North Carolina after a lengthy trot up from Florida. Makes you wonder: should swimmers start bookmarking pool dates instead? Dive deeper into the epic saga of Contender’s ocean odyssey—LEARN MORE.

Good news shark fans, the biggest ever male great white shark has been located once again, and he’s gone a long way since he last checked in.

If lions are kings of the jungle, then great whites are almost certainly contenders for the kings of the sea. There’s not many aquatic animals to have such an iconic series of films focused entirely on them after all, unless you count the clownfish in Finding Nemo.

Sharks don’t exactly have the best reputation and its easy to see why so many people see them as powerful killing machines that will attack whenever they smell blood.

There’s a reason why they’re so often the villains, apart from in Shark Tale of course.

Sadly, Jack Black‘s character is not the reality when it comes to sharks and scientists have been keeping a close eye on a particularly dangerous great white, that has been officially recorded as the biggest male great white shark in history.

Contender might sound like he’s going to sign up for Gladiator, but he’s unlikely to be allowed to compete, given that he stands at a frankly ridiculous 13 ft and 9 inches, weighing in at 750kg.

Now you might be thinking that surely makes him not just the biggest male great white in history, but the biggest of any gender, but you’d be wrong.

Female great white sharks are usually several feet longer, with the biggest in history registering measuring in at 20 feet in length and around 2,000kg in weight.

Contender is a whopper (OCEARCH)

Now, I’m sure even the biggest shark fan out there wouldn’t want to get too close to Contender but if you’re wondering which beaches you need to stay away from, then I have the answer.

Although he was recently knocking about near Florida, it seems he’s gotten sick of hanging about with the Disney adults down there and has instead headed north up the American coast.

The latest ping of his travel log was registered on the evening of 5 May, close to the North Carolina coast, meaning he’s swam well over 600 miles in the past month alone.

He’s a big lad. (OCEARCH)

If you’re wondering what a ping means, well Ocearch describe it as ‘when the shark spends only a brief period of time at the surface. The signal is sent and received by an Argos satellite’ which then provides the rough location, much like tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

So, given that Contender probably spends much of his life below the surface, he may well have moved on again in the few days since he last popped up for a quick look. Maybe stick to the swimming pools if you’re a swimmer in North Carolina.