Researchers detected Contender around July 15 off North Carolina's Outer Banks, with the 1,653-pound great white now moving toward Cape Cod and already tracked in Cape Cod Bay.
The mature male is following a familiar seasonal route north, where New England's dense seal populations and productive summer waters draw great whites close to shore.
OCEARCH tagged Contender in January 2025 about 45 miles off Florida and Georgia, identifying him as the largest male great white ever tagged in the Atlantic at 13.8 feet.
The shark's five-year SPOT tag transmits whenever its dorsal fin breaks the surface, feeding public tracking data as hundreds of great whites make similar summer visits to New England.