Divers capture first underwater great white shark footage

Volunteer divers conducting an environmental cleanup mission in the Mediterranean Sea have captured what is believed to be the first-ever underwater video of an adult great white shark in its natural habitat in the region. The encounter occurred on June 8, 2026, as the divers were removing abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily, between the Italian island of Sicily and Tunisia.

The divers, part of a joint mission by the Healthy Seas Foundation, Ghost Diving, and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites, were working at a depth of roughly 40 meters when the approximately four-meter-long shark appeared. The animal, described as an adult male, approached within a few meters of the group before circling them and swimming away. The diver who filmed the encounter, Derk Remmers, said the team was shocked and amazed, and that his fingers were trembling as he operated the camera. He described the shark's behavior as curious and non-aggressive, noting it seemed "laid back" before vanishing into the open water after the divers exhaled bubbles.

While occasional surface sightings of great white sharks have been recorded in the Mediterranean, marine scientists...