‘You’re more likely to win the lotto’: Divers’ astonishing shark encounter
A team of volunteer divers cutting away abandoned fishing nets from a Mediterranean shipwreck got the shock of a lifetime when they came face-to-face with a massive great white shark.
The extraordinary encounter off the coast of Sicily has captured what is believed to be the first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white in the region.
Watch the video above.
Incredible footage captures an adult great white underwater in the Mediterranean. Derk Remmers/Healthy Seas/Ghost Diving/SDSS
For diver Derk Remmers, the unexpected greeting was unlike anything he had experienced underwater.
“You spend decades diving wrecks and removing ghost nets, but nothing prepares you for a moment like this,” he said.
“Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal.”
While great white sharks have occasionally been spotted at the surface in Mediterranean waters, underwater footage of an adult in its natural habitat has never before been documented by divers.
The remarkable sighting came during a clean-up operation led by the Healthy Seas Foundation alongside Ghost Diving and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites (SDSS).
"Nothing prepares you for a moment like this." Derk Remmers/Healthy Seas/Ghost Diving/SDSS
Rather than searching for sharks, the team had travelled to an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia to remove abandoned fishing nets that continue to trap and kill marine life.
The species is classified as critically endangered in the Mediterranean and European waters due to overfishing and habitat loss. AP
“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,” Remmers said.
The Strait of Sicily is one of the Mediterranean’s busiest fishing grounds, with discarded nets posing an ongoing threat to marine species.
“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,” Healthy Seas director Veronika Mikos said.
Previous dives at the site found wildlife entangled in abandoned gear, including endangered loggerhead sea turtles.
The expedition also collected environmental DNA samples and conducted underwater monitoring to build a clearer picture of the species living around the wreck.
Researchers caution that more analysis is needed before drawing broader conclusions about Mediterranean great white populations, with further scientific work expected in the coming months.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
