Great white shark caught on underwater footage during Mediterranean clean-up

Divers removing abandoned fishing nets in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily came face-to-face with an adult great white shark.

ROME - Divers removing abandoned fishing nets from the central Mediterranean, between Italy and North Africa, have captured what they believe is the first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white shark in the region.

The sighting occurred as a team led by the Healthy Seas Foundation recovered so-called ghost nets from a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily -- a biodiversity hotspot heavily impacted by industrial fishing.

The video, taken last week and released on Monday, shows the shark accompanied by a dozen striped pilot fish, that often flank large predators in the hope of picking up leftovers.

Footage and photographs of the shark were filmed by volunteer diver Derk Remmers of Ghost Diving, one of the project partners. “An offshore underwater shark encounter in the Mediterranean is insane,” Remmers said in a statement.

Another member of the diving team, Pascal van Erp, said on Facebook that the shark had likely been drawn to dead marine life entangled in the abandoned fishing net, including lots of sea turtles.

While there have been occasional sightings of great whites in the Mediterranean, the size of the population is unknown and previous encounters are not believed to have been filmed by divers, the foundation said.

“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,” said Healthy Seas director Veronika Mikos.

Researchers working with the mission said the sighting could improve understanding of the distribution and behavior of the critically endangered species, though further analysis would be required before broader conclusions are drawn.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer, editing by Alvise Armellini