First underwater footage of adult great white shark recorded in Mediterranean

The great white shark came face to face with the divers

A great white shark has been spotted underwater in the Mediterranean Sea for the very first time, new footage shows.

Derek Remmers, a conservation diver, spotted the rare shark during a mission to recover abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily between the Italian island and Tunisia last month.

Marine experts have said it’s highly unusual for great white sharks to be spotted in the Mediterranean, and the footage is an important record for scientists.

Speaking of the encounter, Remmers said, “Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater.

“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.”

The shark was spotted on a diving mission to remove old nets / Credit: Healthy Seas/Ghost Diving/SDSS

Dr Carlo Cattano, a researcher at the Sicily Marine Centre who is collaborating with the mission to remove old nets in the area, 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.”

There have been occasional surface sightings of great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea, but this is believed to be the first time an adult great white shark has been recorded underwater.

Great white sharks are more commonly found off the coast of South Africa and Australia.

The Strait of Sicily represents both a crucial biodiversity hotspot and one of the Mediterranean’s most intensively fished zones.