Discover 8 of the Largest Great White Sharks Ever Found in the Gulf of Mexico

Like your Aunt Susan, the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) often prefers to spend its winters in a warmer locale. The Gulf of Mexico provides the perfect getaway for this apex predator. That is why thousands of great whites call the Gulf their home during the winter months. Great white sharks are huge animals. They are sexually dimorphic, so females grow larger than males. An average female reaches about 15 to 16 feet in length, while males usually grow to about 11 to 13 feet long. Fully grown great whites tend to weigh over 1,000 pounds! This begs the question: just how big can these massive fish get? Read on to discover eight of the largest great white sharks ever found in the Gulf of Mexico.

8. Caroline—1,435 lbs

Let’s start off our list with a bang! Caroline is a great white shark that has been spotted as far north as the Cabot Strait, off the southern coast of Newfoundland in Canada. This amazing creature traveled all the way down to the southwest part of the Gulf of Mexico, where researchers found her near Veracruz, Mexico. Caroline measures 12 feet and 9 inches long. She was at sub-adult status when she weighed in at 1,435 pounds. That means she still has some growing to do. How massive will this intrepid explorer get?

7. Acadia—1,601 lbs

In 2021, Acadia the 12-foot 7-inch great white made quite a stir in southern Texas, when scientists spotted her 150 miles off the Galveston coast. Researchers suspect that she may have been taking advantage of an abundance of prey species brought into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico by sea mouth upwelling. Acadia weighs in at 1,601 pounds. Researchers found this hefty gal during a Nova Scotia expedition, and they gave her a French Canadian name to honor the region.

6. Ferg—1,621 lbs

Ferg the 1,621-pound beast seems to spend most of his time in the cool waters of the Atlantic. Researchers have spotted him many times off the Carolina coasts. However, on February 1st, 2021, researchers found him hanging out in the Florida Keys. Ferg is a fully mature, adult male and he measures 11 feet and 8 inches long.

5. Scot—1,644 lbs

Big boy Scot is a 12-foot 4-inch shark who has been pinged many times off the Floridian coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Like many of the other sharks on this list, Scot is tracked by OCEARCH, an organization that conducts global research on sharks and other ocean animals. OCEARCH scientists capture and tag sharks, then release them back into the ocean so their whereabouts can be tracked. When Scot’s dorsal fin breaches the surface of the water, it sends out a ping that allows researchers to know where exactly he is. At 1,644 pounds, Scot is one of the largest sharks that OCEARCH tracks.

4. Miss Costa—1,668 lbs

The glamorous Miss Costa is one of the more famous sharks on our list. More than 16,000 people follow her X social media account. At 1,688 pounds, Miss Costa certainly is a wonder. She measures 12 feet and 5 inches long and is often pinged in the deep waters near Florida’s Gulf coast.

3. Katharine—1,804 lbs

At a whopping 1,804 pounds, Katharine is a magnificent great white specimen. She has been spotted many times in the West Florida Escarpment, particularly near Apalachicola. Katharine measures 14 feet and 2 inches long—that’s longer than a midsize sedan! She was named after Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the song “America the Beautiful”.

2. Unama’ki—2,195 lbs

At 2,195 pounds, it’s amazing that Unama’ki is only at number two on our list of the largest great white sharks ever found in the Gulf of Mexico! She measures 15 feet and 5 inches in length. That is one gargantuan fish! Unama’ki, which means “Land of the Fog,” is the Mi’kmaq name for Cape Breton, where this massive shark was first tagged. She was last pinged in 2020, in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Florida keys.

1. El Monstruo de Cojimar—7,000 lbs

Drumroll, please! The largest great white shark ever found in the Gulf of Mexico was the legendary 7,000-pound Monstruo de Cojimar. In 1945, six Cuban fishermen decided to hunt the mysterious underwater monster that had been eating up much of the fish population in their area. They took off in a boat, armed with harpoons and rope, and they came back with an incredible 21-foot-long “monster shark” to display to the townsfolk. The tale of El Monstruo may have inspired Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella The Old Man and the Sea, which tells the story of a struggle between an elderly Cuban fisherman and an enormous fish.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Howard Chen/iStock via Getty Images