“Contender” weighs an astonishing 1,653 pounds. Photo: OCEARCH
Researchers with the ocean animal research organization Ocearch have just tagged their “largest ever” male great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean. At 13.8 feet long, the shark isn’t the longest great white ever discovered, but at 1,653 pounds it’s clearly large enough to hold a weight class of its own.
The shark’s been named “Contender” and his travels around the Atlantic can be followed on Ocearch’s updated map. His first ping came on January 17, 2025, approximately 45 miles offshore of the Florida-Georgia border. He’s since made his way south along Florida and at one point was pushing closer to shore around Orlando, but he’s since moved deeper into the Atlantic where his most recent ping came on February 10, 2025. In total, Contender has traveled just under 300 miles in the past 24 days. Ocearch says Contender’s tag will remain in operation for a total of five years.
As mentioned, there are much larger great whites than Contender, but males are significantly smaller than their female counterparts. According to The Smithsonian, the average full grown male great white is between 11 and 13 feet long while females typically come in at around 15 or 16 feet. The largest females, however, can grow to be as long as 20 feet long and will weigh several thousand pounds — sometimes as much as five times heavier than even Contender.
Back in 2019, for example, Ocean Ramsey was filmed swimming with a shark she believed to be “Deep Blue,” a 20-foot female great white so popular it has its own social media account. Researchers claimed the shark Ramsey had found wasn’t, in fact, Deep Blue, because certain markings on the animals didn’t match up.
“She was one of the most gentle great whites I’ve ever encountered and I’ve been working with great whites for over 10 years,” Ramsey said about the animal. “She’s just like a big grandma shark. By big, I mean massive.”
