Diver captures rare footage of great white shark in Mediterranean Sea

A Mediterranean dive turned extraordinary when a volunteer diver captured rare footage of a great white shark while removing abandoned ghost nets from a shipwreck. Derk Remmers, a member of the Ghost Diving Foundation, descended to depths beyond 132 feet (over 40 meters) between Sicily and Tunisia to document the encounter. The mission, organized by Healthy Seas, merges ghost-net removal with biodiversity monitoring on shipwreck ecosystems that teem with life in offshore waters. Remmers stressed that filming the shark was essential, noting that, to his knowledge, no one has recorded a Mediterranean great white in recent decades, with sightings reportedly absent for more than 40 years. The great white’s size is confirmed by biology: they can reach up to six meters in length and weigh more than two tons. The encounter occurred during a campaign focusing on ghost-net removal and biodiversity monitoring around shipwrecks that serve as underwater habitats. Veronika Mikos, Healthy Seas director, emphasized that protecting these ecosystems from abandoned gear is crucial for life in offshore Mediterranean waters. Sightings are becoming rarer each year, underscoring the need for continued anti-ghost-net work to safeguard apex predators and biodiverse wreck sites.