Great white shark, massively record-breaking, stuns Atlantic City as it pings off Jersey Shore

🌊 Record-breaking great white shark “Contender” pinged off Atlantic City.

🌊 OCEARCH tracking shows the 1,653-pound shark is migrating south after a stop off the Jersey Shore.

🌊 The shark’s data tag helps scientists study great white migration and ocean conservation efforts.

ATLANTIC CITY — "You’re gonna need a bigger boat."

The largest male great white shark ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean pinged off the Jersey Shore this week.

Giant great white shark spotted near Atlantic City

OCEARCH, a non-profit that tracks sharks around the world, said that Contender, the 32-year-old, 1,653-pound, nearly 14-foot, adult white shark, pinged just southeast of Atlantic City on Wednesday night around 9 p.m.

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Contender’s last Z-ping was on Nov. 11 at 10:16 p.m. A Z-ping happens when a shark spends only a brief period of time at the surface, OCEARCH explained. The signal is sent and received by an Argos satellite, but it’s not strong enough to determine an accurate location.

Contender is on the move, after making a brief stop in New Jersey. He’s making his way south to Florida for the winter.

From Canada to Cape Hatteras — Contender’s epic Atlantic journey

The powerful shark was first tagged on January 17, 2025, off the Florida/Georgia coast, about 45 miles offshore, OCEARCH reported.

From April to mid-June, the great ocean warrior was pinged off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. In June, he pinged about 22 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras. He pinged again in July off the coast of Massachusetts, OCEARCH data recorded.

The next time Contender pinged was in Late September near Quebec, Canada. He pinged multiple times in October from Canada to the U.S., OCEARCH reported.

Then, on Tuesday, he showed up off the coast of Atlantic City.

Tracking the ocean’s top predator for science and conservation

Contender is contributing to OCEARCH’s mission of shark research and ocean conservation.

The SPOT tag deployed on Contender will help provide valuable real-time data for approximately five years, helping the global non-profit track its movements and understand its migration patterns.

According to OCEARCH, Contender’s name is in honor of Contender Boats, a longtime OCEARCH partner, whose industry-leading sport fishing and pleasure boats enable research missions.

To follow Contender’s journey, you can track his movements here.

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