What may be the first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea has been captured off the coast of Italy. Divers encountered the massive predator while conducting a ghost net cleanup near a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily.
ITALY — A team of volunteer technical divers has captured what is believed to be the first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea.
The extraordinary encounter occurred in the Strait of Sicily while volunteers with Ghost Diving, in collaboration with the Healthy Seas Foundation and The Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites (SDSS), were removing abandoned fishing nets from a deep shipwreck.
This encounter is especially unique because surface sightings have occurred in the region, but filmed underwater encounters have never been documented, the Healthy Seas Foundation said.
Divers capture first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea during a ghost net cleanup near a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily.
(Healthy Seas Foundation via Storyful)
Video shows the jaw-dropping moment the great white swims by, surrounded by a small school of fish.
While the joint expedition focused on recovering commercial fishing gear from a known biodiversity hotspot—where ghost nets routinely trap and kill sea turtles and other marine life—spotting a great white was an unexpected milestone.
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According to Carlo Cattano, a researcher at the Sicily Marine Centre of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, most understandings and records of great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea come from dead specimens caught during fishing operations.
“Observations like this are extremely valuable for improving our understanding of the distribution, habits and behavior of this critically endangered species, whose survival is threatened by human activities,” Cattano said.
Healthy Seas Foundation via Storyful
(Healthy Seas Foundation via Storyful)
The diver who captured the footage, Derk Remmers of Ghost Diving, compared the extremely rare moment to winning the lottery.
“Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater,” he said.
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He went on to explain that nothing truly prepares you for an “insane” encounter in the Mediterranean, even after decades of diving and removing nets.
Remmers said the historic moment highlights the vital importance of their ongoing mission to clear ghost nets from ocean ecosystems.
