14-Foot White Shark Contender Pings Near Outer Banks as 1,700-Pound Male Migrates North
Updated
Updated · The Independent · Jul 17
14-Foot White Shark Contender Pings Near Outer Banks as 1,700-Pound Male Migrates North
3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Jul 17
Summary
A satellite tag on Contender, the largest male white shark ever tagged in the western North Atlantic, sent an alert Thursday evening near North Carolina’s Outer Banks, though the ping was too brief to fix an exact location.
OCEARCH said the nearly 1,700-pound shark is likely continuing the species’ annual summer migration up the East Coast toward feeding grounds off Cape Cod and Atlantic Canada.
Contender was last pinpointed in the same area in April and has traveled more than 7,000 miles since researchers tagged him off Florida and Georgia in January last year.
The 14-foot shark’s tag is expected to transmit real-time movement data for five years, giving researchers a rare look at how mature male white sharks move, feed and support population recovery.