Contender, a large male great white shark tagged by the marine research group OCEARCH, has been spotted in waters off the coast of North Carolina after months of cruising near Florida.

The research group tagged Contender in January 2025. He weighs nearly 1,700 pounds and measures more than 13 feet long. The tracking tag provides real-time data about his location, allowing researchers to study migration patterns and other behavioral habits.

Contender was most recently detected about 45 miles southeast of Cape Fear, near Wilmington, North Carolina, on Sunday night, OCEARCH said in a social media post.

According to the organization, great white sharks like Contender typically spend the summer in cooler, prey-rich northern waters near Maine and Canada before migrating south for the winter months.

He is not the only shark currently tracked in the area. A juvenile female named Nori was about 36 miles east of Cape Fear as of Saturday. Another juvenile female, Cayo, was about 67 miles southeast of the area, while a subadult male named Jason was tracked roughly 32 miles south of Cape Fear earlier in February. Three additional sharks recently pinged in waters near Charleston.

Shark tracking data is not transmitted daily. Devices attached to dorsal fins only send signals when the fin breaks the water’s surface and an Argos satellite is overhead. OCEARCH senior data scientist John Tyminski explained in a video that satellites are positioned over a specific area for roughly 13 minutes at a time. During that window, multiple transmissions must be sent to confirm an exact location.

If only one signal is received, the reading is classified as a “Z-ping,” which provides a general rather than precise location. Each tag can transmit real-time data for several years, and the tracking information is publicly available through OCEARCH.