A Great White shark has been captured on video in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. Divers came face-to-face with the 15ft beast – which can weigh up to 4,000lb – during a mission to clear netting from a shipwreck.
It is thought overfishing has contributed to driving the species to near extinction in the Mediterranean and there are only a few hundred left in the sea.
The incredible footage – believed to be the first time the creature has been filmed in its natural habitat under water in the Med – shows the massive shark swimming close to the wreck and divers between Sicily and Tunisia.
Volunteer diver Derk Remmers told the BBC it was “pretty special,” adding: “The shark was there, pretty close to the wreck and pretty close to us in fact. It swam away, turned around and came back.
“In fact, my fingers were trembling when I was trying to get the camera operating. But on the other hand, I think my biggest fear was that I couldn’t get the camera running so I couldn’t record this rare event.
“It’s important to me that no one gets scared because it was offshore, it was in the central Mediterranean, it was not close to the beach where people could feel endangered. And this footage doesn’t start any hunt for the Great White Shark.”
Scientists say people should not be concerned as the shark, believed to be an adult male, was spotted many miles offshore between Tunisia and Sicily.
Conservationists said they hoped the sighting may encourage governments to create marine protected areas in Mediterranean waters.
Derk was part of a team of three divers working for the NGO Healthy Seas who captured the footage whilst diving to highlight the problem of “ghost fishing nets” – fishing gear lost at sea which continue to trap and kill marine life years after they have been abandoned.
He added: “We feel somehow blessed to have this encounter, which also shows us the importance of our work.
“Because if a predator like that is hunting close to this wreck, that also means that there’s a big amount of fish and a big amount of animals he could hunt there.
“And if they are trapped, there’s also a chance we trap some of these predators. And if we trap them – there are only very few around there – that would be a big disaster.”