A great white shark has been spotted underwater in the Mediterranean for the first time ever.
Divers from Healthy Seas were removing ghost nets on an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia when they spotted the predator.
Their footage is believed to be the first ever captured of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea in his natural habitat.
Great white sharks are usually found in temperate and subtropical coastal waters, particularly in the northeastern Pacific, southern Africa, and Oceania.
However, the findings suggest the species is now roaming the seas off the coast of Europe.
‘Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater,’ said Derk Remmers, the diver who filmed the encounter.
‘You spend decades diving wrecks and removing ghost nets, but nothing prepares you for a moment like this.
‘An offshore underwater shark encounter in the Mediterranean is insane, yet we also went on with our diving plan to remove nets from the wreck, as this moment showed the importance of our work very clearly.’
Their footage is believed to be the first ever captured of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea in his natural habitat
Divers from Healthy Seas were removing ghost nets on an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia when they spotted the predator
Great white sharks have occasionally been spotted at the surface in the Mediterranean.
However, underwater encounters filmed by divers have never been documented before.
The latest encounter took place while the team was working to recover abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck located offshore in the Strait of Sicily.
This is a key biodiversity hotspot, but also one of the most heavily exploited fishing areas in the Mediterranean.
‘What makes this encounter so powerful is not only the shark itself, but the context in which it happened,’ said Veronika Mikos, Director of Healthy Seas.
‘We were there to remove ghost nets trapping marine life on a shipwreck ecosystem that is a hotspot for biodivesity.
‘Moments like this remind us how much life can still exist in offshore Mediterranean waters and how important it is to protect it from preventable threats like abandoned fishing gear or overfishing.’
The researchers hope the sighting will help to shed light on the distribution of Great white sharks around the world.
Diver Derk Remmers was the one to spot the Great white, and said ‘nothing prepares you for a moment like this’
The latest encounter took place while the team was working to recover abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck located offshore in the Strait of Sicily
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Should we do more to protect sharks in our waters, or are they too dangerous to be allowed near popular beaches?
Dr Carlo Cattano, researcher at the Sicily Marine Centre of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, said: ‘Most of our knowledge on the White Sharks in the Mediterranean Sea comes from records of dead specimens caught by fishing operations.
‘Observations like this are extremely valuable for improving our understanding of the distribution, habits, and behaviour of this critically endangered species, whose survival is threatened by human activities.
‘Our research on sharks has, over time, allowed us to identify several key hotspots for threatened species, and this sighting is particularly significant in validating the conservation value of this area.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr Lauren Smith, a shark expert at Saltwater Life, reassured holidaygoers that there’s no need for concern.
‘This footage is genuinely encouraging news for the conservation of Mediterranean great white sharks,’ she explained.
‘Historically, great whites were far more abundant and widely distributed throughout the region, but centuries of fishing pressure and overexploitation have reduced them to a critically endangered population.
‘Seeing a healthy individual in the central Mediterranean is a reminder that these remarkable animals are still part of the ecosystem and that conservation efforts remain vital.
‘Importantly, this shark was filmed far from coastal beach resorts, and there is no reason for the public to be alarmed.
‘The ocean is their domain, and encounters like this should inspire respect and appreciation rather than fear.’
The sighting comes shortly after researchers warned that Great whites could soon appear off Britain’s coast thanks to global warming.
‘Our new study of two whale fossils, with preserved fragments of shark teeth, suggests the modern descendants of these animals could once again roam the southern region of the North Sea, between the UK, Belgium and Denmark,’ researchers wrote in a blog on The Conversation.
‘Climate change may recreate the conditions that allowed the ancestors of great white sharks to hunt in these waters.’
Despite no official record, there have been numerous unconfirmed sightings of great whites around Cornwall and northern Scotland – indicating they may actually already be here.
HOW SHARKS EARNED THEIR RUTHLESS REPUTATION
Sharks are the most efficient predators on earth and have long terrified humans.
Their basic design has never really changed over the course of 200million years and they are considered to be complex and intelligent.
Their teeth are fear factor number one, with the great white’s teeth growing up to two-and-a-half inches in length.
Their prey are impaled on the pointed teeth of the lower jaw where they saw away sections of the flesh. The serrated edges of the teeth help with this process.
Their teeth are brittle and are constantly breaking off but are also constantly regrowing and on average there are 15 rows of teeth present in the mouth at one time.
Sharks are the most efficient predators on earth. Their basic design has never really changed over the course of 200million years
Their speed is fear factor number two.
They are very fast in the water compared to humans with the mako shark able to reach an incredible 60mph in bursts.
The great white can reach speeds of 25mph.
By comparison, 5mph is the fastest a human being can reach.
A shark’s power and size terrifies us, too.
The great white shark can grow up to 20 feet and while it has no particular taste for humans even an exploratory bite is enough to cut a man in half.
Most sharks release a human after its first bite but sometimes, that’s all it take to kill a person.
However, sharks have far more reason to be afraid of humans. We kill up to a million of them a year, often just cutting off their fins to make into soup and throwing the rest of the shark back into the water, where it starves or drowns.
