A massive great white shark has returned to the waters off Florida after a year-long journey that took it up to Canada and back.
Contender, a 13-foot, 9-inch male great white weighing 1,653 pounds has been tracked since January of 2025, according to OCEARCH, a marine research group based in Jacksonville that monitors shark movements.
The group first tagged Contender about 45 miles off the Florida-Georgia coast on Jan. 17, 2025, and in the year since, the shark has traveled far.
In March, he was still off the Florida coast but then headed north, until he was tracked near the Gulf of Maine in July.
On Sept. 29, he pinged in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Newfoundland, Canada.
But last week, Contender began pinging off Vero Beach about a year after he was first tagged.
According to OCEARCH, in 367 days Contender has traveled around 5,294 miles.
OCEARCH will be tracking Contender for five years in the hopes of better understanding his migration patterns and to gather data to help protect sharks and the ocean ecosystem.
