Rome, 08 June 2026
Divers from the marine conservation organization Healthy Seas have filmed an adult great white shark in its natural habitat in the central Mediterranean for the first time, in the Strait of Sicily.
Location and circumstances of the sighting
The footage was captured between Sicily and Tunisia, as the divers were recovering lost fishing nets from a shipwreck. According to the organization, this represents the first known video recording of an adult great white shark in the wild in the Mediterranean. Until now, most knowledge about great white sharks in the Mediterranean had come from findings of dead animals or bycatch from fisheries.
Derk Remmers, who filmed the encounter, described it as an extraordinary event, as reported by the Roman daily newspaper "Il Messaggero". "Statistically, it would be more likely to win the jackpot in a lottery than to encounter such an animal underwater," said Remmers. The animal was sighted by divers from the marine conservation organization Healthy Seas during the recovery of lost fishing nets at a shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia.