The largest tagged male great white shark in the Atlantic Ocean has been identified traveling up the US and Canada coastline amid a surge in sightings of sharks that are increasingly shifting their movement patterns due to the overheating of the oceans.<\/p>\n
The great white shark, named Contender, is nearly 14ft long and weighs more than 1,650lbs. The hulking fish has been pinged in several locations off North Carolina and Maine as he headed north for the summer, with Contender\u2019s last known location located off Nova Scotia in Canada on 11 July.<\/p>\n
Contender is the largest male ever tagged in the Atlantic by Ocearch, a shark research organization, which first attached\u00a0a satellite tag to his dorsal fin in January last year. The giant predator, thought to be 30 years old, shuttles between Florida and Canada in his seasonal migrations. Ocearch said it is confident that Contender, named after a research boat, is now summering in Canada.<\/p>\n
The identification of Contender\u2019s movements comes as shark sightings have surged in locations including New York and\u00a0California. There have been 16 sightings of sharks just in July off Rockaway Beach in New York City, a situation that has spurred some nervousness. \u201cIt\u2019s a little scary,\u201d one beachgoer\u00a0told NBC.<\/p>\n
But scientists point out that while the chances of being attacked by a shark remains very small, rising ocean temperatures, caused by the human-driven climate crisis, are altering the range of several shark species, sometimes bringing them closer to where people are swimming or surfing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing evidence of a northward movement because of the warming waters and that means for there\u2019s more chances to see sharks,\u201d said Shannon Barry, a researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology who led recent\u00a0research\u00a0finding that bull sharks have moved up the US\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cBull sharks are definitely going to be more near shore \u2013 they can go into low-salinity environments such as estuaries and near rivers, so that is something to keep in mind,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is a potential increase in human-shark interactions as they are moving into places where people go to swim and fish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n