OTTAWA: ‘Contender,’ the largest male great white shark ever tagged in the Atlantic Ocean, has made a monumental journey, surfacing off the eastern coast of Canada near Newfoundland and Labrador. The apex predator, measuring approximately 14 feet long and weighing over 1,600 pounds (about 725 kilograms), was recently tracked in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The shark is monitored by OCEARCH, a global non-profit organization dedicated to researching large marine animals. Contender was initially tagged in January off the Florida-Georgia coast. Over a period of 73 days, the massive male traveled approximately 1,400 kilometers (about 870 miles) from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, averaging an impressive 19 kilometers (12 miles) per day.
Researchers noted that very few tagged great white sharks have ever been recorded venturing this far north into the Gulf. This extensive migration is likely driven by the abundance of food, including harbor seals, gray seals, and various schooling fish populations thriving in the northern waters.
The last signal from Contender was recorded on October 2 as a “Z-ping”—a weak location signal that indicates the shark spent only a brief moment at the surface, preventing an accurate fix on its exact position.
A study from December 2022 confirmed that white sharks like Contender exhibit wide-ranging migration patterns, traveling between the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the southern coast of Newfoundland. Researchers believe these migration patterns are crucial for building up fat reserves before winter.
