Right now, this massive shark has found its way back to the Sunshine State.
That shark — a great white nicknamed “Contender” — stretches nearly 14 feet and weighs well over 1,600 pounds, making him the largest male of his kind ever to be recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to OCEARCH, Contender was first tagged in January last year, roughly 45 miles off the coast near Florida and Georgia.
“Contender’s name is in honor of Contender Boats, a longtime OCEARCH partner, whose industry-leading sport fishing and pleasure boats enable our research missions,” OCEARCH’s website reads.
After he was first tagged, Contender swam back north — all the way up to the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Canada back in October.
But the research group’s shark tracker shows that Contender was most recently pinged on Monday morning offshore Florida.
The tracker reveals that Contender has made his way south past Daytona Beach, leading him down the coast off of Sebastian.
Tracker data also shows that Contender stuck around the area until roughly mid-March last year, meaning he likely won’t stick around long before migrating back to Canada.
According to state wildlife officials, many shark species in Florida typically head north during the spring and summer, going back south once fall and winter roll around.
“This pattern explains why shark activity is at its peak in Florida waters during April through October, which coincidentally, is also the time period that humans are more likely to be in the water,” the FWC reports. “Yet shark bites still remain very rare.”
[BELOW: Why is Volusia County the ‘Shark Bite Capital?’]
While Volusia County is marked as the “Shark Bite Capital of the World‚” just over 350 attacks have been confirmed since 1882, meaning that sharks don’t tend to be a huge issue for the vast majority of beachgoers.
“Humans are much more of a danger to sharks than vice versa,” the FWC continues. “On average worldwide, fewer than 10 people die from shark bites each year; however, the world’s fisheries kill an estimated 100 million sharks annually.”
Meanwhile, you can track all of OCEARCH’s tagged sharks online by clicking here.