joan of shark
Joan of Shark, the biggest great white to be tagged in Australia Department of Fisheries

A 5.3m (17ft) shark has been tagged of Western Australia's south coast – the biggest ever to have been tagged in the country's seas.

The female great white shark, nicknamed Joan of Shark, was first tagged close to Mistaken Island in water just 15m deep. Measuring 5.04m to the fork in its tail and an estimated 5.3m in total, researchers believe it could be the biggest ever to have been tagged.

The shark has now been tagged for a second time by the Fisheries Department after a whale carcass lured it to shallow waters near Albany.

"Obviously with that whale incidence and the distress signals that would have sent out, it would have attracted sharks and they will probably frequent the beach on and off for the next few days," said Mark Kleeman, from the Department of Fisheries.

But what are the biggest sharks ever to be found? IBTimes UK looks at some of the biggest predators lurking in the deep.

A Great White Shark is believed responsible for killing a South African swimmer.
Great white shark Reuters

Australia, 1984

According to National Geographic, the biggest great white ever caught was 5.9m long. The female shark was caught at Ledge Point, Australia, just around the peninsula where Joan of Shark was found.

Prince Edward Island 1988

According to the Canadian Shark Research Centre, David McKendrick caught a female great white measuring 6.1m long in the Gulf of St Lawrence off Prince Edward Island.

Gulf of Mexico 1945

'The Cuban' as it has come to be known was a great white shark caught off the Gulf of Mexico by six fisherman out on their daily hunt. Instead of their normal catch, however, they ended up catching a 6.4m great white

Hawaii, 2013

A great white shark estimated to measure 7.2m attacked a woman off Maui, Hawaii, last August. "[The ER doctor] thinks according to the bites and where they are and what they look like, it was probably about a 25-foot shark," victim Evonne Cashman told the Examiner. The size of the shark could not be verified, however.

China, 1957

The biggest ever tiger shark is believed to have measured 7.3 metres and weighed 6,860lbs. The shark was caught off the China-Indonesia coast.

Worldwide, 1.5bn BCE

The biggest shark ever to have lived is the Carcharodon megalodon. Although now extinct, it is still listed in the Guinness World Records as the largest shark at 16 m (53 ft) long. Its mouth perhaps was estimated to be two metres (6ft) wide. It went extinct about 1.5 million years ago.